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. PROPER APPLICATION OF OUR DESIRES So on through the whole list of desires both natural and acquired, we have the benefits of their proper application and the sorrows and discomforts of their abuses. “Place even the highest-minded philosopher in the midst of daily discomfort, immorality and vileness, and he will insensibly gravitate toward brutality. How much more susceptible is the impressionable and helpless child amid such surroundings! It is not possible to rear a kindly nature, sensitive to evil, pure in mind and heart, amidst coarseness, discomfort and impurity.” It is said that “the highest of our joys are found in the affections,” but because the appetites and desires seem primarily intended for the existence of our nature it does not follow that they are selfish. We would never know that we needed to take food were it not for the implanted appetite. We would never know that we needed to seek knowledge were it not for implanted desires, nor would we ever be led to deeds of love and sympathy were it not for the implanted affections. SOWING SEEDS OF KINDLINESS Good and friendly conduct may meet with an unworthy and ungrateful return, but the absence of gratitude on the part of the receiver cannot destroy the self-approbation which compensates the giver, and we can scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindliness around us at so little expense. Some of them will inevitably fall on good ground and grow up into benevolence in the minds of others, and all of them will bear fruits of happiness in the bosom whence they sprang.