Two small aisles on each side of this chapel present a touching instance of the equality of the grave; which brings down the oppressor to a level wit… - Washington Irving

A cunning politician often lurks under the clerical robe; things spiritual and things temporal are strangely jumbled together, like drugs on an apothecary's shelf; and instead of a peaceful sermon, the simple seeker after righteousness has often a political pamphlet thrust down his throat, labeled with a pious text from Scripture.

There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind, in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed. — Washington Irving, “The Mutability of Literature,

His wife "ruled the roost," and in governing the governor, governed the province, which might thus be said to be under petticoat government.