Their eternal prejudices, absorption in their rank, anxiety lest they should lose caste, filled the minds and thoughts of these families once so brilliant, now ruined by the idleness of the men of the family.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Thus has Solon done honour to Poplicola; and he again honoured Solon by regarding him as the best model a man could follow in establishing a free constitution: for he took away the excessive power and dignity of the consuls and made them inoffensive to the people, and indeed made use of many of Solon's own laws; as he empowered the people to elect their own consuls, and gave defendants a right of appeal to the people from other courts, just as Solon had done.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

In the infancy of Rome, two inferior magistrates were annually elected by the people, to relieve the consuls from the invidious management of the public treasure; a similar assistant was granted to every proconsul, and to every prætor, who exercised a military or provincial command; with the extent of conquest, the two quæstors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, of eight, of twenty, and, for a short time, perhaps, of forty; and the noblest citizens ambitiously solicited an office which gave them a seat in the senate, and a just hope of obtaining the honors of the republic.
— 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

[Note 12: "Tout le monde sut qu'il (Grimm) mettait du blanc; et moi, qui n'en croyait rien, je commencai de le croire, non seulement par l'embellissement de son teint, et pour avoir trouve des tasses de blanc sur la toilette, mais sur ce qu'entrant un matin dans sa chambre, je le trouvais brossant ses ongles avec une petite vergette faite expres, ouvrage qu'il continua fierement devant moi.
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] A Romance of Russian Life in Verse by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

She is always either waxing or waning; sometimes her disc is curved into horns, sometimes it is divided into two equal portions, and at other times it is swelled out into a full orb; sometimes she appears spotted 163 and suddenly becomes very bright; she appears very large with her full orb and suddenly becomes invisible; now continuing during all the night, now rising late, and now aiding the light of the sun during a part of the day; becoming eclipsed and yet being visible while she is eclipsed; concealing herself at the end of the month and yet not supposed to be eclipsed 164 .
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny

And of these, again, some have absconded; wherefore they too must be reckoned as dead, seeing that, were one to enter process against them, the costs would end in the property having to pass en bloc to the legal authorities.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

His deep researches into causes and effects, his unwearied application to the study of natural philosophy, his profound and unlimited knowledge of the properties and virtues of every gem which enriches the deep, of every herb which the earth produces, at length procured him the distinction which He had sought so long, so earnestly.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

(The names of a number of charms to excite passion are given, but they cannot be explained in the compass of a note).”
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

I heard him say, sir, on his return from church this morning, that he intended to look through the Evening Post after luncheon; if you like, sir, I might go to the library door and listen—"
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The Italians , even in their Epic Poetry, are full of it.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

We 'did' London to our hearts' content, thanks to Fred and Frank, and were sorry to go away; for, though English people are slow to take you in, when they once make up their minds to do it they cannot be outdone in hospitality, I think.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

One way of seeing how this may occur is to imagine that when ordinary matter moves in the ether it only tends to produce motion of translation of the ether particles, and therefore no resistance.
— from Spinning Tops The "Operatives' Lecture" of the British Association Meeting at Leeds, 6th September, 1890 by John Perry

But here was the extreme point at which reaction generally commenced, for Thurston could not contemplate himself in that character—playing such a part, for an instant.
— from The Missing Bride by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

Yet one may say also that each particular act of antecedent will entering into the total result has its value and order, in proportion to the good whereto this act inclines.
— from Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von

Sphenodon and the Crocodilia are the only living reptiles with complete supratemporal and infratemporal arcades, but they are both present in the extinct Pterosauria and some Dinosauria.
— from The Vertebrate Skeleton by Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh) Reynolds

The experiment proved a success, and I will now try to show you how, with the aid of scissors and mucilage, the pictures which have become so familiar may be made to undergo changes that are indeed wonderful, and how from them may be formed a Mother Goose Scrap-book.
— from How to Amuse Youself and Others: The American Girl's Handy Book by Lina Beard

But his bravery was equal to every proof, and he was a superb specimen of masculine beauty.
— from Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon — Complete by Louis Constant Wairy

[542] Note-book of Bracton, pl. 749: 'Robertus de Spraxtona summonitus fuit ad warantizandum Abbati de Riuallibus 42 acras terre et pasturam ad 30 uaccas cum uno tauro et 48 boues et 40 oues cum pertinenciis in Sproxtona que tenet et de eo tenere clamat, et unde cartam Simonis de S. auunculi sui cuius heres ipse est habet,' etc.
— from Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History by Paul Vinogradoff

Those exterior proofs are generally termed "the evidences of religion."
— from The Irish Race in the Past and the Present by Augustus J. Thébaud

Those who desire dramatic performances of the higher sort have procured them only by forming clubs, hiring theatres, engaging performers, and selecting plays for themselves.
— from Three Plays by Brieux With a Preface by Bernard Shaw by Eugène Brieux