80 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



one of the most definite and satisfactory which con- 

 sciousness makes possible to us. But is it on this 

 account to be accepted at its face value? By no 

 means. The methods used by nature in attaining 

 certain important ends are devious and involve the 

 use of illusions. If I ask a hungry child why he 

 eats his food with such gusto, he will answer, " Be- 

 cause it tastes good/ 7 The fact that the food tastes 

 good is, for the child, a wholly sufficient reason for 

 eating it. The object of eating is merely a pleas- 

 urable sensation, and it is not until the child has 

 been instructed by his elders that he vaguely feels 

 that the object of eating is to provide material for 

 growth and strength. Indeed, as already indicated 

 in these pages, it has only within the last century 

 dawned on the most cultivated minds that the body 

 gets its energy from the combustion of food. When 

 dissociated from appetite, the process of eating is 

 one that inspires disgust. There is no doubt that 

 mankind in general has been duped into maintaining 

 itself by the belief that the object of eating is to 

 gratify a powerful appetite. A similar illusory 

 sensual aim surrounds the sexual appetite. When 

 persons of opposite sex are attracted strongly to 

 each other, the sexual element ordinarily enters into 

 the attraction in some degree, no matter how little 

 the subjects of the attraction are conscious of this. 

 And when sexual intercourse occurs, it is because the 

 participating individuals are under the sway of an 

 imperative sensory excitation. Only rarely is the 



