Mencius said that we do not need to teach people to love the taste of good food. The feeling we have for fine cooking is natural. Similarly, he said, we have other natural feelings that are good gifts that we are all born with. We cannot really get rid of these gifts except by destroying ourselves, but we can allow them to be covered over so that they do not work right. It is a little like the way humans cannot just take off their noses and throw them away, but they can put plugs in their nostrils and spoil their ability to smell things. So it is important that humans not do anything that would prevent their four gifts from working well. It is too bad that people often let their four gifts get messed up. When humans are well nurtured and are protected from negative forces, then they will be good of their own free will.