ss of the argument, even in
the meager outline in which it is here attempted. A degree of indulgence
may therefore fairly be bespoken for the succeeding chapters, which
offer a fragmentary recital of this kind.

Chapter Ten ~~ Modern Survivals of Prowess

The leisure class lives by the industrial community rather than in it.
Its relations to industry are of a pecuniary rather than an industrial
kind. Admission to the class is gained by exercise of the pecuniary
aptitudes--aptitudes for acquisition rather than for serviceability.
There is, therefore, a continued selective sifting of the human material
that makes up the leisure class, and this selection proceeds on the
ground of fitness for pecuniary pursuits. But the scheme of life of the
class is in large part a heritage from the past, and embodies much of
the habits and ideals of the earlier barbarian period. This archaic,
barbarian scheme of life imposes itself also on the lower orders, with
more or less mitigation. In its turn the scheme of life, of conventions,
acts selectively and by education to shape the human material, and its
action runs chiefly in the direction of conserving traits, habits, and
ideals that belong to the early barbarian age--the age of prowess and
predatory life.

The most immediate and unequivocal expression of that archaic human
nature which characterizes man in the predatory stage is the fighting
propensity proper. In cases where the predatory activity is a collective
one, this propensity is frequently called the martial spirit, or,
latterly, patriotism. It needs no insistence to find assent to the
proposition that in the countries of civilized Europe the hereditary
leisure class is endowed with this martial spirit in a higher
degree than the middle classes. Indeed, the leisure class claims the
distinction as a matter of pride, and no doubt with some grounds. War is
honorable, and warlike prowess is eminently honorific in the eyes of the
generality of men; and this admiration of warlike prowess is itself
the best voucher of a predatory temperament in the admirer of war. The
enthusiasm for war, and the predatory temper of which it is the index,
prevail in the largest measure among the upper classes, especially
among the hereditary leisure class. Moreover, the ostensible serious
occupation of the upper class is that of government, which, in point of
origin and developmental content, is also a predatory occupation.

The only class whi