The fear of other states sometimes gets expressed as the belief that _existence_ itself, both national and personal, is threatened. Loisy gives vent to this belief: “Are we then right to be patriotic, even at the risk of being less or not at all Christian? Doubtless; because our only chance of living is bound up with our patriotism.”[85] What he seems to fear is French extermination. But more often the patriot believes that by his loyalty, his own and his country’s freedom are preserved. Patriotism is a demand for freedom. Zimmerman a long time ago pointed out that nearly every people glories in its real or supposed freedom. “Not a few nations,” he says, “are seen resembling the primitive Greeks, in overvaluing themselves on their real liberty; and others, like the degenerate Greeks, priding themselves only on the shadow of an antiquated liberty.”[86] The United States came into existence only after a severe fight for liberty, and consequently American patriotism has had the ideal of freedom deeply impressed upon it. The words of Patrick Henry come the nearest to being classical. “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”[87] The Constitution enumerates liberty next to the possession of life among the inalienable rights of men. Lincoln expressed it again in his Gettysburg address. “... We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”[88] The notes of freedom and self-rule of the people are the dominant ones in the passage with which Lincoln closed the speech. It has been the President of the United States who has most clearly and consistently defined the aim of the Allies in this present war as that of making the world safe for democracy, _i. e._, for freedom. But the countries which are called autocratic also insist that they are fighting for freedom, and they are proclaiming to their peoples that they are fighting on the defensive, and in the cause of liberty. The ideal of freedom is dear to all. Along with the demand for freedom goes the insistence that _those things which are of great value_ to one shall be held sacred. The defense of homes is a cause that arouses masculine patriotism. There is an old saying found in Bacon that “Love of his country begins in a man’s own house.”[89] The patriot will sacrifice for his home; and he will die that his posterity may enjoy the privileges of a free country.