desire man would be in a deathlike and dangerous condition--a
condition in which further progress would be impossible. But by
transmuting the lower desires into the higher he moves steadily
forward and upward without losing the motive power that urges him
forever onward.

To transmute desire, to continually replace the lower with the higher,
really is killing desire out but it is doing it by the slow and safe
evolutionary process. As to crushing it suddenly, that is simply
impossible; but substitution may work wonders. Suppose, for example,
that a young man is a gambler and his parents are much distressed
about it. The common and foolish course is to lecture him on the sin
of gambling and to tearfully urge him to associate only with very
proper young men. But the young gambler is not in the least interested
in that sort of a life, which appears to him to be a kind of living
death, and such entreaty does not move him. His parents would do
better by looking more closely into the case. Why is he a gambler? He
desires money. He seeks excitement. He wants to live in an atmosphere
of intense life and activity. Very well. These desires are quite right
in themselves. It is useless to try to crush them. It is nonsense to
argue that he does not want these things. Clearly enough he does want
them and that is precisely why he gambles. Then do not attempt the
impossibility of killing the desire but change the objects of his
desires. Say to him: "You desire money and a life full of turbulence
and excitement. Well, you can get all that in a better and a
legitimate way and have the respect of your friends besides. You can
go into politics. That is a field within the pale of the law and in it
you can have scope for all the energy and activity and intensity of
life you long for, with all the element of chance which you find so
attractive." And when the young man has had his fling there and tires