arious expressions. This
spirit is a well-known one. All the higher life of society depends upon
it. It may manifest itself as enthusiasm upon an occasion like this, or
as contempt for death upon the battle field, or as quiet service when
the toil of life is grim, or as the cool fidelity that pursues the daily
routine of office or of workshop or of kitchen with a steady persistence
and with a simple acceptance of traditional duties or of the day's toil.
But the spirit thus manifested is not exhausted by any of its symptoms.
The appearances of loyalty are manifold. Its meaning is one. And I
myself venture to state what the true spirit of loyalty is by defining
the term thus: By loyalty I mean the thorough-going, the voluntary, and
the practical devotion of a self to a cause. And by a cause I mean
something of the nature that the true lover has in mind when he is
wisely devoted to his love; that the faithful member of a family serves
when the family itself is the cause dear to him; that the member of a
fraternity, or the child of a college, or the devoted professional man,
or the patriot, or the martyr, or the faithful workman conceives when he
thinks of that to which he gives his life. As all these illustrations
suggest, the cause to which one can be loyal is never a mere collection
of individuals; nor is it ever a mere abstract principle. This cause,
whether in the church or the army or the workshop, in the home or in the
friendship, is some sort of unity whereby many persons are joined in one
common life. The cause to which a loyal man is devoted is of the nature
of an institution, or of a home life, or of a fraternity, wherein two or
more persons aim to become one; or of a religion, wherein the unity of
the spirit is sought through the communion of the faithful. Loyalty
respects individuals, but aims to bring them together into one common
life. Its command to the loyal is: "Be 'one undivided soul of many a
soul'". It recognizes that, when apart, individuals fail; but that when
they try to unite their lives into one common higher selfhood, to live
as if they were the expressions, the instruments, the organs of one
ideally beautiful social group, they win the only possible fulfillment
of the meaning of human existence. Through loyalty to such a cause,
through devotion to an ideally united social group, and only through
such loyalty, can the problems of human personality be solved. By
nature, and apart from some cause to w