But when that is attained he wants a
mansion. He soon tires of the mansion and wants a palace. Then he
wants several--at the seaside, in the city, and on the mountains. At
first he is satisfied with a horse; then he demands an automobile, and
finally a steam yacht. He sets out as a youth to earn a livelihood and
welcomes a small salary. But the desire for money pushes him into
business for himself and he works tirelessly for a competence. He
feels that a small fortune should satisfy anybody but when he gets it
he wants to be a millionaire. If he succeeds in that he then desires
to become a multi-millionaire.
Whether the desire is for wealth, or for fame, or for power, the same
result follows--when the desire is satisfied a greater one takes its
place and spurs the ambitious one to still further exertion. He grasps
the prize he believes to contain complete satisfaction only to
discover that while he was pursuing it desire had grown beyond it, and
so the goal he would attain is always far ahead of him. Thus are we
tricked and apparently mocked by nature until we finally awake to the
fact that all the objects of desire--the fine raiment, the jewels, the
palaces, the wealth, the power, are but vain and empty things; and
that the real reward for all our efforts to secure them is not these
objects at all _but the new powers we have evolved in getting them;_
powers that we did not before possess and which we should not have
evolved but for nature's great propulsive force--desire.
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