It now always implies to wonder with approval; but was by no means restrained to this wonder in bonam partem of old.
Neither is it to be admired that Henry [the Fourth], who was a wise as well as a valiant prince, should be pleased to have the greatest wit of those times in his interests, and to be the trumpet of his praises.—Dryden, Preface to the Fables.
Let none admire
That riches grow in hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.
Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 690.
It may justly seem admirable how that senseless religion [Mahometanism] should gain so much on Christianity.—Fuller, Holy War, part i. c. 6.
In man there is nothing admirable but his ignorance and weakness.—Bishop Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery, part ii. b. i. § 7.
I understand that you be in great admirations of me, and take very grievously my manner of writing to you.—Latimer, Sermons and Remains, vol. ii. p. 419.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints ... and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration.—Rev. xvii. 6. (A.V.)