Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/80

 always survive. The moral educator must throw all his weight on the side of the good desires. If they are strengthened and confirmed, the evil ones will gradually be ousted and overcome.

(2) The child should be encouraged to organise his desires. It is here especially that the teacher may expect to be able to exercise a real influence. He can point out that certain desires are inconsistent with other more comprehensive desires, and therefore should not be satisfied. As we grow older we naturally and unconsciously organise our desires. The character of saint or sinner depends on the fact that their desires have been organised in sub-ordination to some comprehensive good or bad end. The infant's desires are at first little more than impulses, and they are aroused by everything he hears and sees. They are comparatively isolated, and their objects are desired for themselves and not with a view to any more comprehensive end. The infant desires the coin the visitor shows him, simply because it looks an interesting thing, and not for the sake of anything it can buy. As the child grows up, his desires become less capricious. He comes to have some idea why he desires things. But still things are desired largely on their own account. The child does not take large views, and rarely has comprehensive aims. Yet, even when his aims are very limited, his desires naturally become organised with reference to them. Take the case of education. The young child desires to know his lesson, in order to "get top" of the class. This is certainly a very limited end, and in the young child it may be the only end of his desire.