It must be said that in one way the result of an examination of this popular definition is negative. The preliminary study made in this dissertation shows that. Patriotism is hardly to be defined simply as the love of country. Devotion to one’s native land is in one phase an exalted and intelligent loyalty to country as an ideal, but it may show another character. Its nature has instinctive roots. It may be no more than a habit. Even the reasoned support of country is not exclusively what may be described as love; at any rate, it not uncommonly appears as a quite self-interested affection. The conduct of patriots has often been such as to cause wonder if the emotion consuming them were really pure, unmixed love. It has frequently seemed that there was mixed in a full portion of hate. The phrase, “the love of country,” covers a multitude of sins. Patriotism is a pure white light, but seems to be one in the sense that it can be broken up and any color desired extracted from it. Love of country, in view of such facts as these, frequently gets to look like something not quite the same as the exalted sentiment of school textbooks and Fourth-of-July oratory. And yet there must have been some considerations that led to the definition of patriotism as the love of country. Out of what facts did the definition grow? In the light of all the instincts, habits, and reasons of patriotism, what does it seem that the phrase “the love of country” covers? It seems obvious, for one thing, that patriotism is an attitude toward country. It is easily seen that “country” is a constant in the phenomena of patriotism. The country is the object of the patriot’s emotions. Patriotism, in other words, has to do with “mother country” or “fatherland.” And that is to say that patriotism is a feeling of nationality. “Patriotism is the sentiment in which consciousness of nationality normally expresses itself.”[143] One would not know where to look for patriotism at all if to begin with he did not know in a general way that it was this nationalistic sentiment. Generically, patriotism is like family pride, civic pride, team spirit, university spirit, and the like; specifically, it is nationalistic spirit. It might be necessary that this be said only for the sake of completeness were there not a confusion of language on the subject. It is, strictly speaking, a strange and metaphorical use of words to talk about “patriots of the world.” Such a combination of words may serve a useful purpose of propagandism in furthering a desirable spirit of internationalism or cosmopolitanism, and it may in time take on the further connotation, but it is not historically accurate. Patriotism in its meaning as a word and as a matter of fact has to do with a country, and it will serve to keep thinking clear if we hold the term to its historical meaning. Patriotism is the sentiment of attachment to one’s national group.