exercise these powers and arts for selfprotection, selfpreservation, and physical well-being.
Many of man’s instinctive fears and dislikes have originally arisen from the early experiences of the race in which the element of selfpreservation was called into play. These aversions caused actions and courses of conduct which preserved primitive man from injury or death in the fierce struggle for existence on the physical plane which raged in his day. That they persist even to this day, when the necessity for them has largely disappeared, is not to be wondered at in view of the fact that countless generations of men manifesting them have given to them a “set” habit form in human instinct and character.
Professor Schneider says: “It is a fact that men, especially in childhood, fear to go into a dark cavern, or a gloomy wood. …… It is quite sure that this fear at a certain perception sometimes is directly inherited. Children who have been carefully guarded from all ghoststories are, nevertheless, terrified and cry if led into dark places, especially if sounds are made there. Even an adult can easily observe that an uncomfortable timidity steals over him in a lonely wood at night, although he may have a fixed conviction that not the slightest danger is near. This feeling of fear occurs in many men even in their own homes after dark, although it is much stronger in a dark cavern or forest. The fact of such instinctive fear is easily explicable when our ancestors through innumerable generations were accustomed to meet with dangerous beasts in caverns, especially bears, and were for the most part attacked by such beasts during the night and in the woods, and that thus an inseparable association between the perceptions of darkness, caverns, woods, and fear took place, and was inherited.”
THE DESIRE FOR NOURISHMENT. The desire for nourishment in the shape of food, drink, etc., is also an elemental, primitive, instinctive feeling and want. The continuance and the well-being of every physical body depends upon nourishment, and the “Will-to-Live” implants in each creature the strong, insistent urge toward obtaining such. So elemental is this phase and form of Desire that the terms “hunger” and “thirst” represent the strongest ideas and feelings of want, craving, and desire of which the human mind is capable. The terms “Tanha,” and “Trishna,” which the Buddhists employ to indicate the nature of the “Will-to-Live,” mean “hunger” and “thirst,” respectively. One of the definitions of “hunger” is “a strong or eager desire or longing.”
Many of the secondary desires of animals and men are derived from the elementary desire for food and nourishment. For instance, they long for the places in which food abounds; they desire the means of obtaining that food: man desires the qualities and powers which will enable him to secure food. The desire for food is the prime economic necessity, and the actions of individuals and of nations proceed along the lines of this need and desire. In times of famine, this elemental urge pushes aside the later tendencies of civilization, and causes men to revert to the condition of their primitive ancestors with whom hunger was a common experience. A starving man often becomes like a savage, or a wild beast, in many respects. In the state of civilization, men are not so keenly aware of this strong elemental desire, because they scarcely ever become really hungry; but let them be deprived of food for a short time, and the old savage demand manifests itself in its original vigor.
IV
THE EVOLUTION OF DESIRE (CONTINUED)
THE WILL-TO-LIVE, or the Life Forces of Nature, are concerned not merely with the preservation and continuance of the life of the individual, but also quite as truly and forcibly with that of the propagation and transmission of life to the offspring—with the life of the species as well as that of the individual.
DESIRE FOR REPRODUCTION. The elemental desire for reproduction of the species, for the transmission of life through offspring, is one of the most fundamental and basic, and also one of the most powerful desires of all living things. Its essential spirit manifests along subconscious lines, and the living creature acts instinctively to manifest and express the urge of the desire usually without any conscious recognition of the end in view of Nature, or “the Will-to-Live”—but those ends are definite and certain, nevertheless. So strong is this desire, in its various forms and phases, that the individual creature will often sacrifice its own life in the pursuit of the objects of the desire.
This elemental desire manifests in two general forms or phases—each of which proceeds with the same original end in view, though existing only subconsciously. These two general forms or phases are as follows: (1) love of and desire for mates; and (2) love of, desire for, and desire to protect and provide for the offspring. The love of home, country, people—and its derivative emotions of patriotism and loyalty to race—also spring from the same general source. Nature, or “the Will-to-Live” has here in view the perpetuation of the tribe, family, species, and race.
The Love of Mates is a very strong emotion, and its associated desires are of the very strongest nature. Men have willingly laid down their lives in the pursuit of and the protection of their mates; the lower animals manifesting the same general tendency in quite as strong degree. As the scale of life is ascended, this form of desire takes on an additional complexity and an increased degree of refinement and delicacy—but the elemental urge is always underneath and back of the feeling and desire.
The “call of sex,” and the “mating instinct” distinguishes the race of men, as well as the lower animals. In primitive man this desire is but little above that of the lower animals; while in cultured man it rises far above its source, and is closely involved with other feelings and desires. But even in its higher forms, the elemental and primitive urge is there—the flavor of its salt pervades the entire ocean of love of man for woman and of woman for man, penetrating even into its most sheltered bays, inlets, and oceanflowing rivers. Even in the socalled Platonic Love its tang is perceptible, though seemingly unsought and often ignored for a time.
Nature—whatever we may mean by that term—is seemingly inspired by the “Will to Live” to manifest existence through her manifold forms of life; she finds it necessary to cause her creatures to perpetuate their kind, in order that she may so manifest that “Will-to-Live” in the futurity of lifeforms. Unless her creatures are inspired in some way to pass the Flame of Life from the torches of one generation to those of another, she will not be able to manifest continuous and unbroken existence. This being the case, Dame Nature proceeds to arrange adroitly for the maintenance of the Cycle of Life. She works in wondrous ways to bring about the fulfillment of her desires and purposes, and but few escape her net.
Instead of employing merely a driving force, however, she also employs an attracting energy. This energy is manifested in the feelings, emotions, affections, and desires of the Love of Mates—the “mating instinct,” the “call of sex.” Keeping her massive form in the background, and well out of sight, Nature employs the rosycheeked, plumplyformed cherub named Cupid to awaken the heart of man to love. She employs diplomacy to effect her purposes.
Emerson tells us: “The lover seeks in marriage his own private felicity and perfection, and no prospective end. But Nature hides in his happiness her own end—the perpetuity of the race. We are made alive and kept alive by the same means.” Bronson says: “When the man and maid meet, exchange glances, and experience those peculiar little flutterings of the heart, there is something more than this really happening. Nature is then at work—her best beloved work. In the happiness of the lovers is concealed the cheerful content of Nature. In their ecstatic smiles may be discerned the complacent expression of satisfaction on the face of Nature. In their ardent avowals, protestations, and promises, may be heard the echoes of Nature’s contented sigh. The lovers feel so exalted by the Song of Love, that they think that Nature must stand still, observe, and listen. Nature, indeed, does observe, and listen—and very keenly, too; but she does not stand still—not even for
