First Sentence

"GORDON-"Spear," the first weapon shaped by man to aid his fight with nature, and give him dominion over the wild things of plain and forest: the emblem of highest rank among the old Norse gods, held in the right hand of Odin: the weapon of sacrifice among those dim Celtic tribes whose existence is all but lost in the dawn of history-a name that goes back beyond history and beyond even tradition, into days when man began to chip the stones of primaeval river-beds into leaf-shaped sharpened flints: a name full of strange significance in our history, whether borne in Norman, Saxon, or Celtic sound, in simple or compound form by priest, poet, or soldier, by Breakspeare, Shakespeare, Byron or Gordon, by those whose words and deeds have stirred men's blood an none other in our history have done."