there is an old fairy tale: "the thorny road of honor was trodden by a marksman named bryde, to whom came great honor and dignity, but not until after manifold adversities and peril of life." more than one of us had heard that tale in childhood, and perhaps read it in later years, and thought of his own unsung "thorny road" and "manifold adversities." romance and reality are very nearly alike, but romance has its harmonious ending here on earth, while reality more often delays it and leads us to time and eternity.

the history of the world is a magic lantern, showing us picture slides against the dark backgrounds of the ages, of how the benefactors of mankind, the martyrs of progress, have trodden their thorny roads of honor.

from all times, from all lands, these pictures of splendor come to us; each picture lasts a moment only, yet it is a whole lifetime of struggles and triumphs. let us glance at a few in the ranks of the marytrs (nb= martyrs), those ranks which will never be filled until earth itself shall pass a way.

we see a crowded theater! the clouds of aristophanes is sending forth to the audience a river of mirth and mockery; the stage of athens is ridiculing, in both body and mind, her most remarkable man, who was the shield and defense of the people against the thirty tyrants. socrates, who in the heat of battle rescued alcibiades and xenophon, whose spirit soared above the deities of the ancient world, is here in person. he has risen from the spectators' bench and has stepped forward, so that the mocking athenians may decide whether he and the stage caricature resemble each other. there he stands erect before them, and in high spirit he is high above them.

编辑:Liuxuepaper.Com

作文地带知识拓展:

• 英语（English）属于印欧语系日耳曼语族西日耳曼语支，最早被中世纪的英国使用，并因其广阔的殖民地而成为世界使用面积最广的语言。英国人的祖先盎格鲁部落是后来迁移到大不列颠岛地区的日耳曼部落之一，称为英格兰。这两个名字都来自波罗地海半岛的Anglia。该语言与弗里斯兰语和下撒克森语密切相关，其词汇受到其他日耳曼语族语言的影响，尤其是北欧语（北日耳曼语），并在很大程度上由拉丁文和法文撰写。