APPETITE MAY BE ACQUIRED
We not only have the natural appetites but the acquired appetites, which are related to desires but in their action they are like original appetites. Artificial appetites may be inherited. This is especially true in the case of the children of the drunkard, opium taker and tobacco user. This is probably due to the effect upon the nervous system, and it is, as a rule, for the effect upon the nervous system that these things are taken. Or, they may be acquired by the individual’s deficiency of self-control and a natural inclination on his part to act the braggadocio or abandon, deluding himself that he is acting manly, and endeavoring to create a like impression upon others.
THE PERIOD OF “COLTISHNESS”
This disposition is always more or less present in children, and particularly so in youth. It would appear in the minds of a great many there is the necessity of a period of coltishness through which we all must pass, and during which there would seem no help for us but a free rein and copious mother-tears. As the world is growing wiser and better, and as we all are coming to recognize this improvement of conditions, these fatuous delusions are losing ground and now instead of it appearing “big” to the child or youth to do those “smart” things, he is beginning to realize that his standing in the community and the respect which he wishes to command, must be governed wholly by the qualities of manliness and gentility of which he is possessed.
It is a failing on our part individually to look upon our own as good and all others as bad, where there is a difference, and however comforting this may be to us, we must face the question squarely—that there is just about as much bad in one as there is in the other. The scales may not always balance in such a comparison, but usually they will very nearly do so. The virtues which are possessed by different individuals may not always be the same, but they always make up for the more or less patent deficiencies.
For instance, our attention was once called to a very lovable young man, weak in character and somewhat dissipated, who was so sympathetic that he would show the deepest solicitude for the poor and helpless child, the dumb brute in its sufferings, or the poor wounded bird. Had the character of this young man been properly trained in the days of his childhood, no thought would have been given by him to those things resulting in dissipation, but that natural energy of young manhood would otherwise have found vent, and have been a great good and a great blessing.
SUBJUGATION OF THE APPETITE
The appetites are not to be eradicated but to be restrained and kept in subjection to their proper ends. The desires are in many ways analogous to the appetites, hence the common expression we “hunger” and “thirst” for knowledge, or power, or any of the so-called six original desires—knowledge, society, love, power, superiority and possession. All proper desires end in their proper objects and seek nothing more. We may seek knowledge whereby we may control and elevate the natural qualities we possess and make safe our influence upon others: or again we may seek knowledge out of vanity for the means of display.
Social life is the chief sphere of our activities and improvements, without which the moral nature could not be developed. But then we may desire society for purely selfish motives, as the child may seek a playmate merely that he may himself be amused, not that he may give pleasure to the other child. The disposition to be loved and esteemed appears very early in childhood. It is considered a mark of bad character to be careless of the regard of others. A moralist once said: “A young man is not far from ruin when he can say without blushing, ‘I don’t care what others think of me’,” and on the other extreme esteem may be craved to such an extent that it may lead to hypocrisy and deceit.