It was now reduced and confined to the original purpose of its institution.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The shop seemed to be full of all manner of curious things—but the oddest part of it all was, that whenever she looked hard at any shelf, to make out exactly what it had on it, that particular shelf was always quite empty: though the others round it were crowded as full as they could hold.
— from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

The settlement in Orleans County, New York, ceased to grow, the objective point of immigrants from Norway had been changed and the Fox River region received large accessions, especially during the year 1836.
— from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 by George T. (George Tobias) Flom

The Gnostics were distinguished as the most polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy of the Christian name; and that general appellation, which expressed a superiority of knowledge, was either assumed by their own pride, or ironically bestowed by the envy of their adversaries.
— 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

This principle condemns the interferences, once so common, of the legislature, or the officers of government, with the ordinary processes of industry.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

A trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of their strength, by laying a wager with them that they may be pulled through a pond by a cat.
— from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

The whole thing was exceedingly remarkable, almost incredibly so, indeed, and the oddest part of it was that so far it did more or less correspond to the ancient writing on the sherd.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

The eleven books now published sealed the reputation of La Fontaine, and were received with distinguished regard by the king, who appended to the ordinary protocol or imprimatur for publication the following reasons: "in order to testify to the author the esteem we have for his person and his merit, and because youth have received great advantage in their education from the fables selected and put in verse, which he has heretofore published."
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

I do not believe in such republics any more than in that of Plato; or, if the things we read of really happened, I do not hesitate to affirm that these supposed democracies were composed of very different elements from ours, and that they had nothing in common with the latter except their name.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Those feelings which become separated from their original perceptual or ideational substratum and attach themselves to any other kind of perception or ideation—no matter what feelings properly belong to these—are called moods.
— from Psychology: an elementary text-book by Hermann Ebbinghaus

It means that the original purity of innocence will grow into a conscious and joyful acceptance of the Christ-standard.
— from How to Teach Religion Principles and Methods by George Herbert Betts

Seedlings can be most easily started and grown, at least up to the time of pricking out, in light, well-ventilated greenhouses, and many large growers have them for this specific purpose.
— from Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato by W. W. (William Warner) Tracy

Of course not a sign of any game was seen except a few old tracks; and the tracks of an animal are about the only part of it that could exist here in the mosquito season, which lasts from the time the snow is half off the ground until the first severe frost, a period of some three or four months.
— from Along Alaska's Great River A Popular Account of the Travels of an Alaska Exploring Expedition along the Great Yukon River, from Its Source to Its Mouth, in the British North-West Territory, and in the Territory of Alaska by Frederick Schwatka

The so-called 'reversion to type' often pointed out in the Negro is in reality but the recrudescence of fundamental, unchanged race traits upon the partial breakdown of the social heritage or the Negro's failure successfully to appropriate it."
— from Applied Eugenics by Roswell H. (Roswell Hill) Johnson

Yet surely the story of Iphitus exhibits a crime of the blackest dye; and the only palliation of it that is conceivable seems to lie in this, that he probably did not use stratagem, but proceeded by main force.
— from Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 2 of 3 Olympus; or, the Religion of the Homeric Age by W. E. (William Ewart) Gladstone

Sebastian's wife had give him doughnuts and a pie and part of a cake and goodys of all kinds and when I opened up my box it was a lb. of candy like you get in a union station for 60 cts and if it wasn't for the picture of a girl on the cover it would be all profit and a man can't eat the picture which was the only part of it that hadn't ran together like chop sooy and Florrie would of made just as big a hit with me if she had of put in the time bakeing me a mess of cookys that she spent toneing up her ear lobs or something.
— from Treat 'em Rough: Letters from Jack the Kaiser Killer by Ring Lardner

Now, of course, the tower, removed and rebuilt, shows very little trace of antiquity, and the oldest part of it is the statue of Edward III., which stands above the gateway, and bears the inscription
— from Cambridge and Its Colleges by A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton) Thompson

Though no longer needed for their original purpose of illuminating the ways, they are still tended by the piety of the people.
— from Venice and Its Story by Thomas Okey