Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fantastic garments of the monks: 40 but their apparent singularity sometimes proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple and primitive model, which the revolutions of fashion have made ridiculous in the eyes of mankind.
— 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

Our next care was to apply some sticking plaister to the wound in his leg, which exhibited the impression of Chowder’s teeth; but he never opened his lips against the delinquent—Mrs Tabby, alarmed at this scene, ‘You say nothing, Matt (cried she); but I know your mind—I know the spite you have to that poor unfortunate animal!
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

In the case of brick walls, however, no deduction is made provided that they are still standing plumb, but they are always valued at what they cost to build.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

Two cousins, teamsters, did some hauling for a man and had to take a small segregated portion of a silver mine in lieu of $300 cash.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

We have already spoken in such detail of tongue slips, and yet there are still several points to be added.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

Nero illuminated his gardens with live Christians soaked in tar, and we were now treated to a similar spectacle, probably for the first time since his day, only happily our lamps were not living ones.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

The Sioux did not take a single soldier prisoner, but killed all of them; none were left alive for even a few minutes.
— from Picture-Writing of the American Indians Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822 by Garrick Mallery

[Pg lxvi] unsuccessfully, to lessen its credit: a circumstance which it would not have been worth while to notice, if it had not been intimated to us, that there are still some persons in France who side with the objector, which, as he was a Frenchman, and Leonardo an Italian, may perhaps be ascribed, in some measure at least, to the desire which in several instances that people have lately shewn of claiming on behalf of their countrymen, a preference over others, to which they are not entitled.
— from A Treatise on Painting by da Vinci Leonardo

So she rose rather stiffly and started for her own room; though she had not taken a dozen steps in its direction before she came to a sudden, startled pause.
— from Divided Skates by Evelyn Raymond

But these were no times to think of such things, and so she put away the thought and went about her simple duties, hoping that Gervase would call to see her soon.
— from The Crimson Sign A Narrative of the Adventures of Mr. Gervase Orme, Sometime Lieutenant in Mountjoy's Regiment of Foot by S. R. (Samuel Robert) Keightley

They are short, succinct, pithy, always to the point, and wonderfully suggestive."— Tablet.
— from The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies

"I'm as much to blame as they are," she said, presently.
— from Mary Wollaston by Henry Kitchell Webster

If the adult should steal personal property as this babe steals food wilfully, the penitentiary would be his end.
— from Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World by Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman) Wooldridge

Although there are some specific propensities, certain observable trends of behaviour, as in hunting-play, courtship-play, and the like, we must not expect, nor do we find, anything like stereotyped definiteness of conative activity.
— from Animal Behaviour by C. Lloyd (Conwy Lloyd) Morgan