But he soon grows to desire to "get top" in order to satisfy the more comprehensive end of getting a prize. It is often remarkable how such a relatively restricted aim as this may organise the child's desires and activities. He will himself curb his desire for play in order to prepare his home lessons. His desire for a perfect school attendance will enable him to overcome a violent desire to accept his uncle's invitation to a pantomime some afternoon. In these ways he is organising his desires with reference to some relatively permanent and comprehensive aim. The great purpose of moral education is to encourage the organisation of desires under some worthy end. Right desires are as important for the child as true knowledge. It has been said, and with much truth, that the great aim of all education is to teach men and women to desire the right things.
So far we have been following common usage in speaking of "good desires" and "evil desires." But these phrases conceal an important distinction, which must now be explained. When we speak of "good desires," we are apt to confuse two meanings of the word desire. Desire properly means the actual process of desiring. But it is often used to mean the thing desired, the object of desire. When we say that a man's desires are evil, we do not mean that his actual mental processes are evil, but that the objects to whose attainment those processes are directed are, in relation to himself, evil. Desire is always for some object, and it is the goodness or badness of that object in relation to the self that makes the desire good or evil. In strictness, we
