Self-control and how to secure it = (L'éducation de soi-même) / by Paul Dubois ; Authorized translation by Harry Hutcheson Boyd.

  • Paul Charles Dubois
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Self-control and how to secure it = (L'éducation de soi-même) / by Paul Dubois ; Authorized translation by Harry Hutcheson Boyd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    And why this great zeal, this continual anxiety to improve one's own mind, to in- fluence that of others f It is simply to procure the greatest possible amount of happiness in this world. The sole motive for every action of man is the desire for happiness. We have affirmed self-preservation to be the primitive instinct of every creature en- dowed with instincts. This is not always true. Animals are dominated by the sexual instinct, by the desire for instant possession, which is stronger than hunger or thirst; it is during the rutting season1 that animals show the most stubborn indifference to ill treatment. In man the desire for happiness is so much to the fore that he often prefers death to the loss of what he considers his happiness. To 1 The original is '' la poursuite amoureuse,'' which is dif- ficult to translate at all literally in reference to animals without appearing absurd. [19]