The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-01-25
DESIRE.

AN ESSAY DELIVERED BEFORE TH1
JACKSON COUNTY, OHIO, TEACHERS
ASSOCIATION, DECEMBER %, 1882
BY JOHN T. MOORE.
What do you want? Why do yol
want it?
We use the term vant, because it i:
broad, expressive, and native. 1t i
easily spelled-w-a-w-n-t-want. 1t i.
humble in it's attire It cannot boast
large foreign relationship like its
synonym, desire, but it can trace it:
own pedigree far into the mists of {
remote antiquity, and still recognize
itself as essentially generic.
What do you want? Were L tt
stop here, and attempt to record the
individual answers-it would be the
end of ny lssturing-I would just a:
we'll ensass an epitaph at once; there i:
not enough of the three score and ter
left, to get through with the few per
sons within the bar,-and by thai
time those within the auditorium ano
gallery would be too old to attend the
funeral.
Imagine few of the answers-ar
overcoat, a new bonnet, a piano, 6
cashmere dress, looking glass, &
tooth brush, pocket knife, tor
with string to it, jewsharp, tin
trumpet, balloon, an electric light, 6
phonograph, two dollars and half in
money, ETC., etc. The line separating
the child from the adult is imaginary
In that respect it is like all other geo.
graphical lines. 1t vacillates accord
ingly as culture advances or recedes
Our little child is delighted with a
string of colored glass beads-the
proudest chieftain of barbaric Africa
will swap his entire family, wives and
all for similar string There are
parties here who would willingly dis
pose of their wives on similar terms.
TIE safe answer to the first ques-
ton is to say that everybody wants
something: Why do they want it?
Here, we enter the portals of mental
philosophy-do not start in alarm-it
is no part of my purpose, tonight, to
be either philosophical, pedantic or
abstruse. My orders are to be enter
tanning and instructive. if possible,
but to be entertaining anyhow. The
Executive Committee have, doubtless,
been reading the maxim which old
Mr.. Weller endeavored to impress
upon his son, "Get money, Samivel,
honestly if you can, but get money
Why do you want anything? :?
Simply because you cannot avoid it.
Desire is a part of your being,--lt
springs into life with your first infan-
tile breath; it accompanies you
through every stage Of existence, it
expires when the cold hand Of death
grasps with his icy fingers the last
respired sigh.
Making desire thus primitive, it di-
rectly antagonizes doctrine which,
within the past twenty-five years has
become very popular. Certain peo-
pie discontented with the simple Mo
sale account of creation, have sought
to invent more perfect system. They
are the evolutionists. We are taught
by them that all the infinite diversities
Of living breathing being that We see
around US, insect, reptile, bird and
beast, are the descendants of few
very simple forms of life. That bone
and muscle, and blood and brain, nay
intelligence and all are but acciden-
tails. The dawn of creation witnessed
nought Of living, save low type Of
being not much unlike our present
tadpole; a mere life center comprised
of few minute cells. These persons,
however, in their anxiety to do away
with an intelligent directive agency
have singularly enough forgotten to
inform us how these first rudimentary
cells came into existence. They really
postulate life, in very low form it is
true but still life.
A mussel is not very high order
of being, nor very elaborately finished.
His endowments are few, he has no
hand wherewith to grasp-no feet
wherewith to walk-no eyes where
with to see. [ have recently learned,
however, that he excels other animals
in one respect-he has two tails. This
may be regarded in the light of an
accomplishment for the mussel. Let
us start for convenience sake in the
evolutionary process, from this brain
less being as base, and thence devel-
op all the residue Of the living. Such
law will seem miraculously strange.
In one instance we observe the bivalve
casting his shell, and alternating him.
self into the long, gliding, sinuous
form of the cowardly blacksnake; in
this transformation the two tails have
become one, dwelling together in har
mony-the bifurcation takes place at
the other end of the brute, the little
embryonic tongue is split into two
very active members. Again the shell
is cast, or if you like better the snake
skin is thrown away, what is left of
the creature is rolled up into a more
compact form, two processes start out
tending earthward which finally be-
comes legs terminating in feet either
webbed or splay, two other processes
start out from the sides and after me-
andering horizontally in devious
courses they become wings, the divided
tongue is soldered together into solid
mass and incased in horny substance
called the bill, finally the whole being
is dressed out in new creation Of
feathers, and we have turkey or
goose. Are you related to this last
namea creature? If so by what tie
of consanguinity?
And thus the evolutionists go on
step by step, here adding an organ,
there modifying one; furnishing the
four-handed tribes, the two-legged
and the two-handed, the four-legged,
the no-legged, and the kangaroo whose
chief attribute is his enormous tail until
the summit is reached, and man evolv-
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