Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/557

Rh stops to ask whether his brother has the right of it? The loyal man simply says, "We'll settle that later, but for the time being I stand with my brother." And loyalty doesn't look to see whether the battle is to be lost or won.

Remember too that loyalty, like charity, begins at home. When can one see a finer sight than that of a family that stands compactly together, helping and encouraging one another within, and defending each other from without.

As students in this, to you, new community, I trust you will ever remain loyal to the high resolves you bring with you, loyal to the communities, the schools and the friends you have left behind, and that you may cultivate here a new loyalty to your alma mater, to your class, and to whatever organizations you belong, and above all loyalty to the purposes of your education. Never lose sight of the important fact, however, that loyalty demands submission to the rules of your order or organization; no properly constituted society will admit a member who will not subscribe to its constitution and by-laws. In practise you will not be called upon to do anything spectacular, but you will have to impress upon yourselves the necessity of steadfastness of purpose.

And don't expect too much of anybody. We are all human, and human frailties are in our blood and bones. Whether the object of your loyalty to a person, an organization, a party or a principle, you must not expect it to be perfect. None of the relations of this life are altogether satisfactory.

As a citizen be loyal to the legitimate and reasonable interests of the community in which you live, and you will not be found lacking in loyalty to the country at large. It is of loyal citizens and of loyal citizens only that great nations are made. Tyrants can not long oppress, nor can powder and bullets conquer, a people permeated with and true to such sentiments.

You will note that loyalty demands that you assume certain risks. This is inevitable. Loyalty without risks must be of a pretty poor quality. If there is anything especially pusillanimous in human nature, anything that one instinctively despises, it is the disposition to stand aside when there is danger to be faced, or to wait to see which side is going to win before choosing that particular side. Take the risks and go cheerfully forward.

Loyalty is one of the big and far-reaching virtues; it makes trustworthy men and great men; as a national virtue it makes a people great. For if it is love that makes the world go round, it is loyalty that holds the world together.