Those therefore, who think it would be original and pleasing to spring surprizes on their guests at an otherwise conventional and formal entertainment, should save their ideas for a children's party where surprizes not only belong, but are delightedly appreciated.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom; and he exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

A LOVER OF HERS IN A VAT, UPON HER HUSBAND'S UNLOOKED FOR RETURN, AND HEARING FROM THE LATTER THAT HE HATH SOLD THE VAT, AVOUCHETH HERSELF TO HAVE SOLD IT TO ONE WHO IS PRESENTLY THEREWITHIN, TO SEE IF IT BE SOUND; WHEREUPON THE GALLANT, JUMPING OUT OF THE VAT, CAUSETH THE HUSBAND SCRAPE IT OUT FOR HIM AND AFTER CARRY IT HOME TO HIS HOUSE Emilia's story was received with loud laughter and the conjuration commended of all as goodly and excellent; and this come to an end, the king bade Filostrato follow on, who accordingly began, "Dearest ladies, so many are the tricks that men, and particularly husbands, play you, that, if some woman chance whiles to put a cheat upon her husband, you should not only be blithe that this hath happened and take pleasure in coming to know it or hearing it told of any, but should yourselves go telling it everywhere, so men may understand that, if they are knowing, women, on their part, are no less so!
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Also the dress of even the poorest of their women was different from the jackets of the peasants; they usually wore drilling or percale, herded their cattle in shoes not of bark but of leather, and reaped and even spun with gloves on.
— from Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by Adam Mickiewicz

Al′bion (Celtic Albainn ), the earliest name by which the island of Great Britain was known, employed already by writers of the sixth century B.C. , who speak not of Britannia but of the land of the Albiones, and in poetry still used for Great Britain.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

And when Sir Kehydius saw Sir Tristram come upon him he saw none other boot, but leapt out at a bay-window even over the head where sat King Mark playing at the chess.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

And then Sir Tristram saw none other bote, but rode against him, and overthrew Sir Uwaine and hurt him in the side, and so he departed unto his lodging again.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

If we now admit that many seeds which are either minute in size, of thin texture or wavy form, or so fringed or margined as to afford a good hold to the air, are capable of being carried for many hundreds of miles by exceptionally violent and long-continued gales of wind, we shall not only be better able to account for the floras of some of the remotest oceanic islands, but shall also find in the fact a sufficient explanation of the wide diffusion of many genera, and even species, of arctic and north temperate plants in the southern hemisphere or on the summits of tropical mountains.
— from Darwinism (1889) An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications by Alfred Russel Wallace

"But it is a mistake, all the same," Gifford went on; "it is unbusiness-like, to say nothing of being bad for his people to have the burden of support lifted from them; it pauperizes them spiritually."
— from John Ward, Preacher by Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

But the hill on which the town stood, and the mountainous background and the purple sea, were the hills and the sea not of Belgium, but of a dream country—of Italy, perhaps, the medieval artist's paradise.
— from Miss Bretherton by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

Other scenes, not of bloodshed, but of groveling sensuality, devised for the entertainment of his father and his sister, though described by the dry pen of Burchard, can scarcely be transferred to these pages.
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) The Age of the Despots by John Addington Symonds

If this woman were to work in a factory, would she not often be brought into associations distasteful to her?
— from The Chimney-Corner by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The mother already seems not only better but—quite well!
— from The Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 by Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert) Hare

When a former envoy from France had alluded to Richardot as expressing the same friendly sentiments on the part of his sovereign and himself, she had replied by referring to the sham negotiations of Bourbourg, by which the famous invasion of 1588 had been veiled, and she had intimated her expectation that another Spanish fleet would soon be at her throat.
— from PG Edition of Netherlands series — Complete by John Lothrop Motley

And when the party issued forth into some more open spot not overhung by boughs, so that the moonlight fell upon them and cast their black shadows on the ground, they looked still more unearthly.
— from Boscobel; or, the royal oak: A tale of the year 1651 by William Harrison Ainsworth

The general said nothing of Beauclerc, but that he was, he believed, still at Paris.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 10 Helen by Maria Edgeworth

The trees and grass and daffodils had seemed not only beautiful but pleasantly un-smirched by the human story.
— from The Judge by Rebecca West