LITMIR.BIZ

      V

       THE EVOLUTION OF DESIRE (CONCLUDED)

       Table of Content

      THE DESIRE for Property. The desire for property is another elemental feeling and motive to action. Property means: (1) “The exclusive right to possession, enjoyment, and disposal of anything, vested in the individual”; and (2) “that which is possessed, enjoyed, and subject to disposal of the individual.” The love of and desire for possessions is imbedded in the deep soil of human nature. Some of the lower animals possess it to a marked degree; and nearly all the lower animals feel the right of possession of places, positions, etc., as well as their supply of food.

      In the case of primitive man, this feeling and desire arose from the necessity of providing for his welfare and that of his family. It was necessary for him to possess a place of abode—a cave, a tree, a tent, etc. It was necessary for him to lay by and accumulate a supply of food at certain seasons; and to have land to till and cultivate for food production. The individuals manifesting this desire, tended to survive and to have their families survive; those in whom it was weak tended to fall in the struggle with environment. The survivors transmitted their tendencies to their descendants; the losers left no descendants to whom their improvident tendencies were transmitted. And so the tendency became “set” as a habit in the mental and emotional nature of the race.

      The wants of primitive man were few and simple. A little food laid by for himself and his family; a few skins to cover their bodies; a rude cave, hut, or tent to shelter them; implements of war and of the hunt—this was about all. As man rose in the scale, his wants multiplied, and consequently he began to desire to acquire and to accumulate not only a greater number of things, but also a greater variety of things. The rest is merely a matter of the evolution of this form of desire—a proceeding from the simple to the more complex, from the few things to the many, and so on. This is the story of the Desire for Property, with its accompanying feelings and emotions. Originally based upon necessity, it has now extended to comforts and even luxuries. Normally manifested, it is to the interest of the individual and of the race; abnormally manifested, it is a curse to both.

      THE DERIVED DESIRES. In the course of the Evolution of Desire, man has acquired many forms of feeling and desire derived from the elementary desires which are instinctive to him, and which have been considered by us in some detail. Thus his love for his family has extended to his affection for his general family, his tribe, his nation. From this has developed in him the desires of love of country, patriotism, and loyalty to his government, and also the social feelings of friendship, companionship, sympathy, justice, truth, politeness, as well as the desire for the observance of moral codes, laws, rules of right conduct.

      In the same way, the necessities of procuring food, defending himself and family, acquiring possessions, and so forth, have aroused in him the feelings and desires connected with invention, creative work, constructive imagination, thought, reasoning and other intellectual powers and activity. The old adage that “Necessity is the mother of invention” may be extended to include in the brood of Necessity the activity of Thought and Reasoning—the entire Rock of the family of Intellect.

      From less well­defined sources have sprung the feelings and desires connected with the Aesthetic Emotions—the love of beauty, art, music, literature, culture, refinement, etc. That they sprung from the elemental soil, there can be no doubt; though the line of ascent is not so clearly discernible. From the original enjoyment of the experiences of the hunt, the battle, the conflict with nature, beasts and hostile men, have arisen the feelings and desires connected with games, sports, the drama, stories and other forms of recreation, exercise and “play.” Play has evolved directly from activities concerned with necessity, as all psychologists know; the desires based upon it are reflections of the older and cruder desires of the elemental nature.

      From the deep recesses of man’s nature have sprung the feelings and desires connected with what is called “religion.” From the crudest beginnings, and the grossest forms of superstition, have sprung the beautiful plant and flower, blossom and fruit, of the highest conception of religion held by the most advanced of the race today. As Herbert Spencer said: “The ultimate form of the religious consciousness is the final development of a consciousness which at its outset contained a germ of truth obscured by multitudinous errors.” John Fiske said: “That inward conviction, the craving for a final cause, the theistic assumption, is itself one of the master facts of the universe, and is as much entitled to respect as any fact in physical nature can possibly be.” Darwin holds that the religious feelings, emotions, affections and desires are highly complex, consisting of love, complete submission to an exalted and mysterious superior being, coupled with a strong sense of dependence, fear, reverence, gratitude, hope for the future, and perhaps many other elements.

      And so, the evolution of man’s desires has proceeded from lowly elemental beginnings and sources to wonderful heights and endings. But the sources and soil must never be forgotten when you consider the subject of the essential nature of Desire. Moreover, be it noted, in times of great stress, necessity, or unusual conditions, it is found that the forms and phases of Desire which have evolved last in the scale—the latest comers into the family of Desire—are the first to be discarded by the man or woman; then follow the next recent, and so on, until if the necessity be sufficiently great and the pressure of circumstances sufficiently strong, the individual tends to revert to the primitive type and to manifest only the most elemental and primitive forms and phases of feeling and Desire. The “cave man” is far nearer to the surface of civilized humanity than most persons realize. Shipwrecked men, men lost in the wild places of earth, men in times of famine and pestilence, often have shown a surprising tendency to revert in a remarkably short time to the plane of their primitive ancestors. It has well been asserted that “Civilization in man is only skin deep.”

      Some idealistic thinkers who have become hypnotized by the dream of the culture and refinement which to them seems destined to be the common possession of the coming human race—a state of culture and refinement in which the elemental and fundamental instincts, feelings, emotions and desires of man will have been buried deep beneath the surface of things as unworthy and “un­nice”—are greatly disturbed when they are forced to see that at present, at least, the buried instincts are not entombed so very deep after all, and that they will not stay interred in times of storm and stress. They regard these facts as regrettable, and as something to be deplored by the race. To them the “elemental” is detestable—something to be apologized for. To them the surface feelings and desires are the only worthy ones—the feelings and desires of the great depths of human nature are unworthy, and to be regarded as bearing “the mark of the beast” upon them.

      These idealistic thinkers overlook the fact that the Fires of Desire create the Steam of Will, and that the accomplishments of the race depend materially upon the fact that these inner fires be kept burning fiercely, with a dear draught, and free from clinkers and ashes. Civilization and refinement have brought much to man, without doubt, but many men reaching for their ideals of culture and refinement have lost much of their original, elemental power of Desire. They have allowed their fires of Desire to become deadened by the ashes of artificial civilization, and clogged with the clinkers of non­essential feelings and desires. They fail to see that the Fires of Desire require proper supervision and control; their drafts must be kept at least partially open, and their grates kept free from dead ashes and clinkers.

      The men and women who have accomplished great success in any line of human effort have cleared away the ashes and clinkers of their Fires of Desire—they have kept the furnace clear and clean, and have opened wide the drafts when necessary. If you will carefully consider the strong, successful men and women in any walk of life, you will find that each and every one of them is filled (or has been filled during his or her period of intense activity) with this strong, insistent, elemental Desire­force of Nature—this active principle of Desire which manifests in a degree of “want” and “want to” which will not be denied. Differ as they may in their secondary qualities, these strong individuals nevertheless possess in common this essential primal quality, and they manifest it when required—it

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