Everyone talks continually about patriotism, they refer to patriotism at every opportunity, but not all know what the expression patriotism stands for.

One of our best judges of social life, Alexander Glowacki, who is also a practical Polish patriot once defined patriotism as follows: According to a universally accepted opinion, patriotism is love of the native country.

Briefly speaking, according to the most widely used public opinion, patriotism should depend on the emotion, which is strong, very strong, the strongest, - but only on the emotion. The best wish that we could have for our country is that it be happy and satisfied, because here on earth we measure happiness by satisfaction, just like the strongest form of love is the sacrifice of health, freedom, future, and even life.

That is why there are some patriots who not having a change of sacrificing themselves, do not do anything. Their country, according to their opinion, disregards the small crumbs of our life and demands only great sacrifices.

Let us describe patriotism more clearly, or rather, more accurately. It is true that there is a strong feeling of love for our country and community at the bottom of patriotism. This feeling remains dormant as long as we are at home - but when we are in a foreign country for a long period of time, then hunger for our native land takes a strong hold. It becomes so powerful that it cannot be satisfied by even the most beautiful scenery of the foreign lands or by the best amusements afforded by the foreign people.

It is, in regarding the force of this attachment, that I wish to point out that this feeling exists not only in the hearts of the poor but in the rich as well, and in the ignorant, as well as in the educated.

The love of the native land, then, is one of the most important factors 3of patriotism, but not the only one. That foreign land which awakens in us the love for the native land, also creates in the noble souls a higher degree of patriotism, namely, a better understanding and constructive criticism of our native land. We learn many useful things by observing people in foreign lands. Observing the everyday life of people possessing a higher education, we will notice many unusual and inexplicable things which are either better or worse than ours. The houses are nicer, pedestrians are kinder, animals have better care, and wearing apparel is simpler and more elegant. A good observer will also notice that in the foreign countries there is more employment, more intellectual and moral support, more art, more ingenuity, and more justice than in our country.

At first these discoveries fill us with bitterness. We cry not only because we are homesick for our native land, but because we were born in such poor circumstances.

But when we return to our native land, and the yearning ceases we 4really see the beauty of our own community and find that many things in the foreign lands deserve criticism; then instead of nostalgia, there will be a longing for all that is better and beautiful, and finally an ardent desire to establish those good beautiful and dignified things which we saw over there, in our own country.

Now we have learned the three stages of patriotism; the lowest manifests in feeling, the next one in mind and judgment, and the highest in action.

To love the native country is not enough; it is also necessary to know and understand it, even that is not all; for besides loving and understanding it, we must also do something for it. In other words, we must care for our motherland, not only with our hearts, but with all the faculties we possess.