Let us
turn to consider the relation of the spirit of loyalty to this problem.
What light can a study of the spirit of loyalty, as I just defined
loyalty--what light, I say, can such a study throw upon this problem?
Very little--so some of you may say; for any discussion of the spirit of
loyalty can tell us nothing to make nature's mechanism more
comprehensible. One who favors loyalty as a way of solving life's
problems tells us about a certain ideal of human life,--an ideal which,
as I have asserted, does tend to solve our personal moral problems
precisely in so far as we are able to express this ideal in our
practical lives. In order to be loyal you indeed have no need to believe
in any of the well-known miracles of popular tradition. And equally, in
order to be loyal, you have no need, first, to decide whether nature is
or is not a mechanism; or whether the modern view of reality, as just
summarized, is or is not adequate; or whether the gods exist; or whether
man is or is not one of nature's products and temporarily well-knit and
plastic machines.
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