Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/79

 UT if the working people do not feel the sentiment of patriotism, it is due to the fact that they have not yet grown up to the level of that lofty sentiment which is characteristic of every educated man. If they do not feel that lofty sentiment, it must be developed in them by education. That is just what the Government does."

Persons of the ruling classes usually say this with such complete conviction that patriotism is a lofty sentiment, that simple persons of the working class who do not feel that sentiment consider themselves to blame for not feeling it, try to persuade themselves that they do feel it, or at least pretend to do so.

But what is this lofty sentiment which ought in the opinion of the ruling classes to be developed in the working people by education?

This sentiment, in its most precise definition, is nothing else than putting one's own state or people before every other state or people. . . . It may very well be that this feeling is very useful and desirable for Governments and for the unity of a State, but it is impossible not to see that it is not at all a