Of course a stage in the formation of the purpose so important as
desire receives a multitude of names. Perhaps the simplest is
appetite. In appetite I do not know what I want. I am blindly impelled
in a certain direction. I do not perceive that I have a suffering
self, nor know that this particular suffering would be bettered by
that particular supply. Appetite is a mere instinct. In the mechanic
structure of my being it is planned that without comprehension of the
want I shall be impelled to the source of supply. But when appetite is
permeated with a consciousness of what is lacking, I apprehend it as a
need. Through needs we become persons. The capacity for
dissatisfaction is the sublime thing in man. We can know our poor
estate. We can say, That which I am I would not be. Passing the blind
point of appetite, we come into the region of want or need; if we then
can discern what is requisite to supply this need, we may be said to
have a desire. That desire, if specific and urgent, we call a wish.
All these varieties of desire include the same two factors: on the one
hand a recognition of present defect in ourselves, on the other
imagination of possible bettered conditions. Diminish either, and
personal power is narrowed. The richer a man's imagination, and the
more abundant his pictures of possible futures, the more resourceful
he becomes.
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