intent, a model of the spirit of true
loyalty; for he gave all that he had and was to what he found to be
his cause. Such an insight into the meaning of the loyalty of the foe,
chivalry requires. Therefore, the true spirit of loyalty, including,
as is reasonable, this spirit of chivalry, also requires us to state
the principle of loyalty in a still deeper and more universal form.
The true principle of loyalty is, in fact, an union of two principles.
The first is: _Be loyal._ The second is: _So be loyal, that is, so
seek, so accept, so serve your cause that thereby the loyalty of all
your brethren throughout all the world, through your example, through
your influence, through your own love of loyalty wherever you find it,
as well as through the sort of loyalty which you exemplify in your
deeds, shall be aided, furthered, increased so far as in you lies._

Can this principle be acted out? Can it direct life? Is it a barren
abstraction? Let the life and {203} the deed of the lonely lighthouse
keeper give the reply. Who, amongst us, whatever his own cause, is not
instructed and aided in his loyalty by the faithful deed of such a
devoted soul? Such people are then, in truth, not loyal _merely_ to
their own private cause. _They are loyal to the cause of all loyal
people._ For, to any enlightened survey of life, all the loyal, even
when chance and human blindness force them at any moment to war with
one another, are, in fact, spiritual brethren. They have a common
cause--the cause of furthering universal loyalty through their own
choice and their own service. The spirit of chivalry simply brings
this fact to mind. The loyal are inspired by the loyal, are sustained
by them. Every one of them finds in the loyal his kindred, his
fellow-servants. Whoever is concretely loyal, that is, whoever wholly
gives himself to some cause that binds many human souls in one
superhuman unity, is just in so far serving the cause not only of all
mankind, but of all the rational spiritual world. I repeat then: The
true principle of all the loyal is: _So be loyal to your own cause as
thereby to serve the advancement of the cause of universal loyalty._

Now of the principle thus formulated I assert that it is a principle
fit to be made the basis of an universal moral code. There is no duty,
there is no virtue whose warrant and whose value you cannot deduce
from this one principle. Charity, justice, fidelity, decisiveness,
strenuousness, truthfulness