e endurable or even
possible: the security of property; the sanctity of home; the
opportunity of education; the stability of institutions; the blessings
of peace; protection against violence and bloodshed. Since the state and
its laws are essential to the well-being of all men, and consequently of
ourselves; we owe to it the devotion of our time, our knowledge, our
influence, yes, our life itself if need be. If it comes to a choice
between living but a brief time, and that nobly, in devotion to country,
and living a long time basely, in betrayal of our country's good, no
true, brave man will hesitate to choose the former. In times of war and
revolution that choice has been presented to men in every age and
country: and men have always been found ready to choose the better part;
death for country, rather than life apart from her. So deep was the
conviction in the mind of Socrates that the laws of the state should be
obeyed at all costs, that when he had been sentenced to death unjustly,
and had an opportunity to escape the penalty by running away, he refused
to do it on the ground that it was his duty to obey those laws which had
made him what he was and whose protection he had enjoyed so many years.
To the friend who tried to induce him to escape he replied that he
seemed to hear the laws saying to him, "Our country is more to be valued
and higher and holier far than father or mother. And when we are
punished by her, whether with imprisonment or stripes, the punishment is
to be endured in silence; and if she sends us to wounds or death in
battle, thither we follow as is right; neither may anyone yield or
retreat or leave his rank, but whether in battle or in a court of law,
or in any other place, he must do what his city and his country order
him; or he must change their view of what is just; and if he may do no
violence to his father or mother, much less may he do violence to his
country." To do and bear whatever is necessary to maintain that
organization of life which the state represents is the imperative duty
of every citizen. This duty to serve the country is correlative to the
right to be a citizen. No man can be in truth and spirit a citizen on
any other terms. And not to be a citizen is not to be, in any true and
worthy meaning of the term, a man.

THE VIRTUE.

+Love of country, or patriotism, like all love places the object loved
first and self second.+--In all public action the patriot asks not,
"What is b