This Desire-Force is a primitive, elemental thing. It is found in the animal kingdom, and among the lower races of men, perhaps more clearly than among the higher types of men, but only because in such instances it is seen stripped of the covering, sheaths, disguises and masks that surround the more civilized forms and planes of life.
But remember this well, the same principle is manifested under and beneath the polished veneer of civilized life — the Desire-Force of the cultured leader of men is as elemental as that animating the fierce and shaggy caveman or the wild Berserker who, naked and half-mad, rushed upon overwhelming hordes of his enemy, brushing them aside like flies — that is, if you will but look beneath the polished surface. In the old wild days Desire manifested its force on the physical plane — now it manifests on the Mental Plane — that is the only difference, the Force is the same in both cases.
While we write, there has just been produced on stage a new play that illustrates this principle. The heroine, the daughter of an old New York family of high social standing and wealth, has a dream of her life in a former...