The doctrine of unlimited fidelity in wives was universally espoused by all husbands, who went about the country and made the wives sign papers signifying their utter detestation and abhorrence of Mrs. Bull's wicked doctrine of the indispensable duty of change.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

But without deviating from the ordinary sense of the words, it will be proper to suspend the judgment we might be led to form on such a state, and be on our guard against our prejudices, till we have weighed the matter in the scales of impartiality, and seen whether virtues or vices preponderate among civilised men; and whether their virtues do them more good than their vices do harm; till we have discovered, whether the progress of the sciences sufficiently indemnifies them for the mischiefs they do one another, in proportion as they are better informed of the good they ought to do; or whether they would not be, on the whole, in a much happier condition if they had nothing to fear or to hope from any one, than as they are, subjected to universal dependence, and obliged to take everything from those who engage to give them nothing in return.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

6 [ 10 ] A glow of conscious superiority, in value to the Government, over his consular colleague and neighbor, Mr. Wildman, at Hong Kong, next suffuses Mr. Pratt’s diction, being manifested thus: Why this co-operation should not have been secured to us during the months General Aguinaldo remained awaiting events in Hong Kong, and that he was allowed to leave there without having been approached in the interest of our Government, I cannot understand.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

Not you alone proud truths of the world, Nor you alone ye facts of modern science, But myths and fables of eld, Asia's, Africa's fables, The far-darting beams of the spirit, the unloos'd dreams, The deep diving bibles and legends, The daring plots of the poets, the elder religions; O you temples fairer than lilies pour'd over by the rising sun!
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

A small calculus occupies the prostatic urethra, and being closely impacted in this part of the canal, would arrest the progress of a catheter, and probably lead to the supposition that the instrument grated against a stone in the interior of the bladder, in which case it would be inferred that since the urine did not flow through the catheter no retention existed.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

Hence it arises that our imagination is so easily excited by music, and now seeks to give form to that invisible yet actively moved spirit-world which speaks to us directly, and clothe it with flesh and blood, i.e. , to embody it in an analogous example.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

It was to read over a draught of a letter which he hath made for his brother Commissioners and him to sign to us, demanding an account of the whole business of the Navy accounts; and I perceive, by the way he goes about it, that they will do admirable things.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Small stones are better, and if these be placed in the bottoms of the trenches, to a depth of eight or ten inches, and covered with sods turned upside down, having the earth packed well down on to them, they make very good drains.
— from The Elements of Agriculture A Book for Young Farmers, with Questions Prepared for the Use of Schools by George E. (George Edwin) Waring

They all lie in a little chapel (a Della Torre burial-ground, by the way), in simple coffins—Charles X. and his sons, the unfortunate Duchess of Angoulême, and, last of all, the Count and Countess of Chambord.
— from Wanderings through unknown Austria by Randolph Llewellyn Hodgson

[100] That Clarence and Elsie should fancy each other had been a secret though unconfessed dream of Clover's ever since her own engagement, when Clarence had endeared himself by his manly behavior and real unselfishness under trying circumstances.
— from In the High Valley Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series by Susan Coolidge

All my strength consists in my sleep, which is as vigorous as at twenty: but with regard to letter-writing, I have so many to write on business which I do not understand, since the unfortunate death of my nephew, that, though I make them as brief as possible, half-a-dozen short ones tire me as much as a long One to an old friend; and as the busy ones must be executed, I trespass on the others, and remit them to another day.
— from The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 by Horace Walpole

She told Uncle Duke’s nurse the men they knew, and whom they didn’t know, at that place.
— from Nan of Music Mountain by Frank H. (Frank Hamilton) Spearman

In its final, imperious stage, it seems the unjoyous dissipation of demons, seeking diversion on the burning marl of perdition.
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Her features, always delicate and regular (for, though rarely, such types unquestionably do exist among most aboriginal Australian tribes), were composed and peaceful.
— from The Squatter's Dream: A Story of Australian Life by Rolf Boldrewood

We drank some, the Uinkarets drank some, but we could not see well enough to get any out for the animals.
— from A Canyon Voyage The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition down the Green-Colorado River from Wyoming, and the Explorations on Land, in the Years 1871 and 1872 by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh

It was probably the most mournful, in all its aspects, ever seen on the face of this earth since the universal deluge.
— from The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization. by John Lord