12

Logic II 12

of that oil and a little nearer to the source of another a different oil
may find that different oil to be the better for him. So
it is with the desires of one individual. The same man who
prefers veal to pork as a general thing, may think that an
occasional spare rib is better than having cold boiled veal every
day of his life. In short, variety is the spice of life for the individual,
and practically still more so for a large number of
individuals; and as far as we can compare Nature's ways
with ours, she seems to be even more given to variety
than me. These three cases may be very different on their
subjective side; but for purposes of classification they are
equivalent.

Desire always has Longitude

But not only is desire general and vague, or indeterminate,
it has besides a certain longitude, or third dimension.
By this I mean that while a certain ideal state of things might
most perfectly satisfy a desire, yet a situation somewhat differing
from that will be far better than nothing; and in general,