10

Logic II 10

Desire always General.

defined by the purpose. A purpose is an operative desier.
Now a desire is always general; that is, it is always some
kind of thing or event which is desired; at least, until the
element of will, which is always exercised upon an individual
object upon an individual occasion, becomes so predominant
as to overrule the generalizing character of desire.
Thus, desires create classes, and extremely broad classes.
But desires become, in the pursuit of them, more specific. Take
Let us revert, for example, to lamps. We desire, in the first
instance, merely economical illumination. But we remark that
that may be carried out by combustion, which creates where there is a
chemical process kindling itself, or heat may be supplied
from without in electric lighting, or it may be stored up, as
in phosphorescence. These three ways of carrying out our main
purpose constitute of our subsidiary purposes. ^* So if we,
decide upon electric lighting, the question will be between incandescent
and arc lighting. If we decide upon combustion, the

^* I am here influenced
by the Essay on Classification of L.Agassiz, whose
pupil I was for a
few months. It appeared
at a most inauspicious epoch.