has not always been
the same, and the selective process has therefore not always given the
same results. In the early barbarian, or predatory stage proper, the
test of fitness was prowess, in the naive sense of the word. To gain
entrance to the class, the candidate had to be gifted with clannishness,
massiveness, ferocity, unscrupulousness, and tenacity of purpose. These
were the qualities that counted toward the accumulation and continued
tenure of wealth. The economic basis of the leisure class, then as
later, was the possession of wealth; but the methods of accumulating
wealth, and the gifts required for holding it, have changed in some
degree since the early days of the predatory culture. In consequence of
the selective process the dominant traits of the early barbarian leisure
class were bold aggression, an alert sense of status, and a free
resort to fraud. The members of the class held their place by tenure of
prowess. In the later barbarian culture society attained settled methods
of acquisition and possession under the quasi-peaceable regime of
status. Simple aggression and unrestrained violence in great measure
gave place to shrewd practice and chicanery, as the best approved method
of accumulating wealth. A different range of aptitudes and propensities
would then be conserved in the leisure class. Masterful aggression, and
the correlative massiveness, together with a ruthlessly consistent
sense of status, would still count among the most splendid traits of
the class. These have remained in our traditions as the typical
"aristocratic virtues." But with these were associated an increasing
complement of the less obtrusive pecuniary virtues; such as providence,
prudence, and chicanery. As time has gone on, and the modern peaceable
stage of pecuniary culture has been approached, the last-named range of
aptitudes and habits has gained in relative effectiveness for pecuniary
ends, and they have counted for relatively more in the selective process
under which admission is gained and place is held in the leisure class.

The ground of selection has changed, until the aptitudes which now
qualify for admission to the class are the pecuniary aptitudes only.
What remains of the predatory barbarian traits is the tenacity of
purpose or consistency of aim which distinguished the successful
predatory barbarian from the peaceable savage whom he supplanted.
But this trait can not be said characteristically to distinguish the
pecu