Patriotism is devotion to a cause, and the cause is one’s own. The patriot has made it his by his own choice. It is a part of himself. Royce in speaking of patriotic loyalty says: “This plan of the patriot has two features: (1) It is through and through a social plan, obedient to the general will of one’s country, submissive; (2) it is through and through an exaltation of the self, of the inner man, who now feels glorified through his sacrifice, dignified in his self-surrender, glad to be his country’s servant and martyr,--yet sure that through this very readiness for self-destruction he wins the rank of hero.”[100] The call of _war_ is not only a call to sacrifice, but also a call to self-expression. Royce continues: “This war-spirit, for the time at least, makes self-sacrifice seem to be self-expression, makes obedience to the country’s call seem to be the proudest sort of display of one’s own powers. Honor now means submission, and to obey means to have one’s way. Power and service are at one. Conformity is no longer opposed to having one’s own will. One has no will but that of the country.”[101] Patriotism in this character simplifies the problem of duty. It provides a cause into which one can throw himself with all his heart, avoid the conflict of a divided mind, and it is able to do all this for a man for the reason that the cause is his own. It makes a joy out of a duty. An expression of the joy that comes to one in the service of his country’s cause is to be found in the words supposed to have been uttered by Epaminondas when he was dying upon the battlefield. Zimmermann cites the incident: “Epaminondas, the Theban, when lying on the ground mortally wounded with a spear at the battle of Leuctra, all that troubled him was the event of the battle, and what was to become of his arms; but on his shield being held up to him, and with assurances that the day had gone for the Theban side, he said to the bystanders with a cheerful countenance, ‘Let not this day, friends, be considered as the end of my life, but as the beginning of my happiness and the consummation of my glory. I have the satisfaction of leaving my country victorious, haughty Sparta humbled, and Greece freed.’ Then drawing the spear out of his breast, he expired.”[102] Even if Epaminondas did not express any such dramatic sentiment, it was a common enough experience among mankind to be the subject of a credible bit of fiction. The joy was in the fact that the cause had triumphed, a cause that he had made his own. The patriot identifies himself with his country; in it he sees himself; and he shares its sorrows and successes.