s do, or
shall we try to change its nature so that war as a natural result will
be impossible? To answer these questions we must study patriotism from
its very beginnings. We must ask: What is patriotism? Where did it
come from? What place has it in our life?

Observe first the simplest cell of life, the amoeba. We can watch it
through the microscope. It is so tiny that it keeps house in a drop of
water. It has neither emotion nor consciousness, in the human sense.
It lives a while, and then splits in two to form other cells that have
no connection with each other. Yet this infinitesimal bit of life has
an instinct, the instinct to save itself. Watch an amoeba as fire is
brought near. It immediately moves away. Its every act is regulated by
this one instinct, self-preservation.

Now let us leave the microscope and go outdoors. Over there is a bird
in a tree top, feeding its young in a nest. Suppose that a fire should
suddenly consume the tree. Would the mother bird fly away in safety?
No, it would die on its nest in the effort to save its young. There is
more than self-preservation here. The scientist will tell you that the
instinct has expanded to include the preservation of the offspring.

And now turn to primitive man. The recent excavations in Sussex will
give us a picture of him. He is a wild, gorilla-like figure that
creeps beneath the trees. He can leap with lightning force on his
prey. He drapes his body with bearskins, and eats meat from fingers
that end in claws. And yet with all his savage ferocity, this is more
than an animal. This is a man. In his breast there stir the instincts
of a man. In his life we see the vital element of patriotism, love.
His little savage family is more precious to him than all the world.
He will fight and die, not only for self-preservation but for those
who to him are "brother and sister and mother." This is the stamp of
the human. This is the potentially divine.

But as the storms of war beat about these little savage families, the
sense of common danger welded them into one. Out of grim necessity
friendship came, and friendship gave birth to patriotism. Loyalty and
sacrifice were not limited to the family; men fought and died for
their tribe.

And now let us turn the microscope upon ourselves. We would fight for
our country. We say because we love our country. We call that feeling
patriotism. It is more extended than the savage love of tribe; it
gives loyalty to a great go