What do I want? I want something, but what is it? It seems strange that this seeking, craving, longing, hungering thought is so universal among men, while so few are able to answer the question, "For what do I seek?" Yet this is the first step to the solution of life's problem. The most general answer given is that money,—riches—is the great need. Money! who does not want money? The poor, because they have it not, the rich because they want more. The invalid says, "I care not for money if only I had health." The unemployed, who are diligently inclined say, "We want work, this idle life is misery." The aspiring youth seeks for education. The lonely and destitute long for a home. The child sighs for manhood, while the man sighs and wishes himself a child again. The stir and noise and bustle we see around us every day is but one continuous struggle to answer this great question—" What do I want?"
Does the man who seeks for money to meet the demand, succeed? Judging from the disappointment, worry, care and vexation which attend him we should say he does not. Even if he seems to attain his object it is but the sport of circumstances.
A reversal of business or some unforeseen calamity, may dash the cup from his lips at any moment, and the fear of such adversity robs the nectar of its sweetness. If material riches were all that is necessary for happiness then all rich men ought to be happy. The fact that they are not proves this a mistaken answer to the problem.
