of vicarious leisure
performed for the divinity or saint in whose name the tabu is imposed
and to whose good repute the abstention from useful effort on these days
is conceived to inure. The characteristic feature of all such seasons
of devout vicarious leisure is a more or less rigid tabu on all
activity that is of human use. In the case of fast-days the conspicuous
abstention from gainful occupations and from all pursuits that
(materially) further human life is further accentuated by compulsory
abstinence from such consumption as would conduce to the comfort or the
fullness of life of the consumer.

It may be remarked, parenthetically, that secular holidays are of the
same origin, by slightly remoter derivation. They shade off by degrees
from the genuinely sacred days, through an intermediate class of
semi-sacred birthdays of kings and great men who have been in some
measure canonized, to the deliberately invented holiday set apart to
further the good repute of some notable event or some striking fact, to
which it is intended to do honor, or the good fame of which is felt
to be in need of repair. The remoter refinement in the employment
of vicarious leisure as a means of augmenting the good repute of a
phenomenon or datum is seen at its best in its very latest application.
A day of vicarious leisure has in some communities been set apart as
Labor Day. This observance is designed to augment the prestige of
the fact of labor, by the archaic, predatory method of a compulsory
abstention from useful effort. To this datum of labor-in-general is
imputed the good repute attributable to the pecuniary strength put
in evidence by abstaining from labor. Sacred holidays, and holidays
generally, are of the nature of a tribute levied on the body of the
people. The tribute is paid in vicarious leisure, and the honorific
effect which emerges is imputed to the person or the fact for whose
good repute the holiday has been instituted. Such a tithe of vicarious
leisure is a perquisite of all members of the preternatural leisure
class and is indispensable to their good fame. Un saint qu'on ne chome
pas is indeed a saint fallen on evil days.

Besides this tithe of vicarious leisure levied on the laity, there
are also special classes of persons--the various grades of priests and
hierodules--whose time is wholly set apart for a similar service. It is
not only incumbent on the priestly class to abstain from vulgar labor,
especially so far a