An experience or routine of making a sort of delight or gratification.
— from Gorgias by Plato

His own merit, and the recommendation of the conqueror of Africa, soon raised him to a separate command; and, in the station of Duke of Mæsia, he vanquished an army of Sarmatians; saved the province; deserved the love of the soldiers; and provoked the envy of the court.
— 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

leaven of the mind and conduct, a system of doctrine or morals, used in a bad sense, Mat. 16.6, 11. 1 Co. 5.6, et al.: whence Ζυμόω, ῶ, f. ώσω, to leaven, cause to ferment, Mat. 13.33.
— from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield

The factions of Dargham and Shawer alternately expelled each other from the capital and country; and the weaker side implored the dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus, or the king of Jerusalem, the perpetual enemies of the sect and monarchy of the Fatimites.
— 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

Compare the silent tread, and quiet ministry, almost by the eye only, with which he is served—with the careless demeanour, the unceremonious goings in and out (slapping of doors, or leaving them open) of the very same attendants, when he is getting a little better—and you will confess, that from the bed of sickness (throne let me rather call it) to the elbow chair of convalescence, is a fall from dignity, amounting to a deposition.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

3. Business, or study, or devotion, often kept him fasting till sunset.
— 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

Bretesche, Bertisca (whence old English Brattice , and Bartizan ), was a term applied to any boarded structure of defence or attack, but especially to the timber parapets and roofs often placed on the top of the flanking-towers in mediaeval fortifications; and this use quite explains the sort of structure here intended.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

An illustration will be found in the speech of Dionysius of Phocaea in Herodotus: “A hair’s breadth now decides our destiny, Ionians, whether we shall live as freemen or as slaves—ay, as runaway slaves.
— from On the Sublime by active 1st century Longinus

She is still handsome, and, instead of transferring her fondness to her children, she only dreams of enjoying the sunshine of life.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Finally, treating of painting, I will speak of draughtsmanship, of the methods of colouring, of the perfect execution of any work, of the quality of the pictures themselves, and of whatsoever thing appertains to painting; of every kind of mosaic, of niello, of enamelling, of damascening, and then, lastly, of the printing of pictures.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

The visitor, whose curiosity has been excited by its present fame, gazes perhaps with something of disappointment on a collection of buildings which have with them so few of the circumstances of dignity or wealth.
— from The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin by John Henry Newman

Oberland, in Central Germany, the Yule log in the, i. 248 sq. Obermedlingen, in Swabia, fire kindled on St. Vitus's Day at, i. 335 sq. Obubura district of S. Nigeria, ii.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12) by James George Frazer

The custom of the Town Clerk of London for the time being, signing official documents of this kind with his surname alone, continues at the present day.
— from London and the Kingdom - Volume 1 A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London. by Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson) Sharpe

The sufferer swoons, or dies, or endures; but the limit comes.
— from A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla by Leigh Hunt

But can you see or dream, or in any way imagine, how out of that mechanical art, and from these individually dead atoms, sensation, thought, and emotion are to arise?
— from The Breath of Life by John Burroughs

“Don’t you think it seems worse for girls to swear or drink or gamble than for boys?”
— from Almost a Woman by Mary Wood-Allen

All the philosophers of the fifth century B.C. , prior to Sokratês, inheriting from their earliest poetical predecessors the vast and unmeasured problems which had once been solved by the supposition of divine or superhuman agents, contemplated the world, physical and moral, all in a mass, and applied their minds to find some hypothesis which would give them an explanation of this totality, [540] or at least appease curiosity by something which looked like an explanation.
— from History of Greece, Volume 08 (of 12) by George Grote

"Are you going in for specialties or doing ordinary mixed gardening?"
— from In Pastures Green by Peter McArthur