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CHAPTER III.

APPETITES.

I BEGIN With the consideration of our animal principles, or bodily appetites. Of these our appetites are the chief, and are distinguished by the following circumstances:-1. They are common to us with the brutes. 2. They are accompanied with an uneasy sensation, which is weak or strong in proportion to the desire we have of the object. 3. They are not constant, but periodical. The remarks which were made on instinct in general, are also applicable to our appetites. They are characterized by the uniformity with which they operate in all individuals; and by the unerring certainty with which they perform their office prior to all experience. Our appetites are three in number; hunger, thirst, and the appetite of sex. Of these, two were intended for the preservation of the individual; the third for the continuation of the species; and without them, reason would have been insufficient for these important purposes.

It has been a question among moralists, whether our appetites, considered in themselves, are to be regarded as social or selfish principles of action. I think they can with no propriety be called social; since they lead us to their gratification without any concern for the good of others. And with as little propriety can they be called selfish, for they are directed to their respective objects, as ultimate ends;

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and they must all have operated, in the first instance, prior to any experience of the pleasure arising from their gratification. Self-love, too, as has been remarked, is often sacrificed to appetite, when we indulge ourselves in an immediate enjoyment, which we know is likely to be attended with hurtful consequences.

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Though our appetites are possessed by us in common with the inferior animals, yet, their operation is exalted and modified in consequence of the other principles with which in our nature they are allied. In a savage state, indeed, man gratifies his bodily appetites, nearly in the same way as the brute; and their gratification is sought after as an ultimate end irrespectively of consequences. But in a state of advanced civilization, when the moral and intellectual principles of the human mind are called into exercise, the appetites are restrained in their indulgence by considerations of duty and expediency, and even their indulgence is accompanied by other and higher sources of enjoyment. The passion between the sexes has given occasion to the exercise of the most ennobling affections; and even in the capricious tyrant it has often been the cause of moments of overcoming tenderness. It has been implanted în human nature for the wisest purposes; and much of what is daring and enterprising in human life, may be traced to its powerful operation.

Passion's fierce illapse

Rouses the mind's whole fabric; with supplies
Of daily impulse keeps the elastic powers

Intensely pois'd, and polishes anew

By that collision all the fine machine;

Else rust would rise, and foulness, by degrees.
Incumb'ring, choke at last what heaven design'd
For ceaseless motion and a round of toil.

It is impossible not to notice the great influence of this class of our animal principles in giving regularity and permanency to the course of human affairs. Our appetites are the same in all circumstances; and though they may be somewhat modified by other feelings, yet no situation, and no progress in knowledge, can extinguish them. Education enlightens the mind, and excites the desire of wealth and honour, but it cannot change the passions and appetites implanted in human nature, and which are necessary to the continued existence of the species. Knowledge will certainly make even the poor rational and intelligent, sober and thoughtful, but cannot possibly make them forget to eat and to drink, nor to neglect those avocations by which the means of gratifying the imperious desires of animal nature are obtained. Even though it were possible to make them all philosophers, yet, since philosophy cannot satisfy the returning importunities of hunger and thirst, nor supply the other necessities of nature, the great business of life would continue to go on as at present: there would still be ploughmen and artificers, farther removed indeed in point of intellect from the brute creation, but not less industrious and persevering in their employment. How preposterous is it then to suppose, that nature has left her great operations, her directing and impelling powers, to be changed or mutilated by the pleasure or caprice of man! These operations, and these powers, are equally constant amid the varied forms which society assumes,-whether its state be

learned or ignorant, rich or poor, refined or barbarous.

But though education cannot eradicate any passion or appetite in human nature, there is a desire, which if it does not wholly create, it most powerfully invigorates; I refer to the desire of improving the condition. Where the people are grossly ignorant, this principle has much less force than in a country where intelligence is equally diffused, and where freedom of thought and of action is allowed; and, perhaps in circumstances of this last description, it might, if not attended with some counteracting forces, occasion some evil. The impelling power of this desire, and the force by which it is regulated and restrained, may not improperly be compared to the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the philosophy of Newton; and the former are not less necessary to the prosperity of the moral world, than the latter are to the existence of the physical. While the desire to improve the condition may be considered as a constantly operating power, acting in a certain direction, the passions and appetites of human nature form another, and an opposing power, by which the impetus of this is regulated and rendered useful. If, indeed, it were optional with the poor, whether they performed the drudgery of their station or not, or, if they attended to their employment, merely because they were ignorant, then it might be inexpedient to afford them that knowledge by which they become indolent: but since every man, whether lettered or unlettered, stands in need of bread; and since, therefore, if poor, he is impelled to labour by a force which is regular in its operation, and which has more efficiency than

any that human ingenuity can put in its place, the danger which is apprehended from the most extensive system of education, is a mere dream of the imagination.

Though in a certain sense, there is neither virtue nor vice in acting merely from appetite, yet it is most certain that their proper regulation is the triumph of religion and of civilization. Many circumstances

clearly point out that it is the intention of nature, that our appetites should be indulged with moderation, and under those restraints which reason prescribes. With regard to sensual gratification, the inferior animals have the advantage over men. Their senses, in many instances, are more acute, while they are exempted from any disagreeable check to the indulgence of appetite. Cicero observes, that a person addicted to a life of pleasure, if he be not quite sunk into the beast,-if he be but a degree more erect than his brethren of the field,-will, from a natural modesty or shame, conceal or dissemble his inclinations-a plain indication that bodily pleasure is unbecoming the dignity of human nature. Besides, all inferior gratifications occupy but a small portion of the life of man, and the recollection of their enjoyment, unconnected with any higher principle, affords no pleasing reflection; a circumstance which forms a presumptive proof that the cultivation of reason and religion, and the exercise of those elevated duties which their improvement requires, are designed to constitute the chief source of human happiness. If any additional consideration were necessary on this head, it might be observed, that the most impious and worthless are

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