I objected to his use of the word “pity” along with the other substitutes. We had another short talk on the subject.
Virginia said: “I would rather commit suicide than be pitied.”
“Then,” I answered, “since we do not wish to be pitied, we could not, with perfect sympathy, do so unto others.”
Virginia went on: “When a person who has some trouble or loss makes a great fuss over it, I must say I don’t think very well of him.”
“We expect people to bear life bravely,” I said, “and to help them do it, to do it altogether. A man who is prevented from helping by his own pity is like a man who, when he saw another blind, put out his own eyes in sorrow, instead of leading the blind.”
I said I wanted to speak of a subject that seemed especially to interest Virginia. I meant patriotism, but patriotism in a large and unusual sense. What were their ideas on this subject? Virginia implied that patriotism was not good, “because whenever you are patriotic for your own country, you have to be patriotic against other countries. You seem to be praising and helping your own at the expense of others.”
“That,” I said, “is just the trouble with the false view of patriotism, and that view has grown out of wars and conquests. For, naturally, whenever people fought for their country, they had to fight against another. But I see patriotism—and any loyalty or faithfulness—in a larger relation. Think for a moment what the word patriotism really means, in its verbal root, and you will see how it grows, how it begins at home, and ends by including the world. What does it mean?”
Henry remembered that it came from a word meaning “Father.”
“Yes,” I said, “it meant, originally, loyalty to our fathers, to our family; and so you must see what it would finally mean.”
“Because,” asked Ruth, “we are related to the whole world?”
“Yes,” I answered, “we are related to the whole world, we are children of all the nations; but most of all, of course, children of our fathers; so that, beginning at the centre, we shall spread to all sides, yet not lose the centre. The definite thing, the love for this land, this home, will come first, and include all the others. We will be patriotic for our Father, the world.”
“Do you suppose,” asked Marian, “that an Englishman could be patriotic for the United States?”