CHAPTER III 
UTILITY 
§1 
WE have seen that all wealth and property imply pro- 
spective services or “desirable events.” It is the desir- 
ability of these future expected services which gives meaning 
to all economic phenomena. It would therefore be im- 
possible, in any full view of the subject, to confine our- 
selves strictly to the study of objective wealth, property, 
and services. In the present chapter we shall consider 
briefly the subjective or psychical element in economics. 
Wealth is wealth only because of its services; and serv- 
ices are services only because of their desirability in the 
mind of man, and of the satisfactions which man expects 
them to render. Indeed, the desirability of services is 
implied in their very definition as “desirable events.” 
The mind of man supplies the mainspring in the whole eco- 
nomic machinery. It is in his mind that desires originate, 
and in his mind that the train of events which he sets 
going in nature comes to an end in the experience of sub- 
jective satisfactions. It is only in the interim between the 
initial desire and the final satisfaction that wealth and its 
services have place as intermediaries. 
We are thus led to consider two new concepts, — that 
of “desirability” and that of “satisfaction.” Both of 
these enter into our consideration only as they are applied 
to the three economic elements, — wealth, property, 
services. To avoid unnecessary repetitions, we may treat 
these three elements under the one rubric of “goods.” 
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