means, and draws on
vicarious leisure as well as on vicarious consumption. Priestly demeanor
at its best is aloof, leisurely, perfunctory, and uncontaminated with
suggestions of sensuous pleasure. This holds true, in different degrees
of course, for the different cults and denominations; but in the
priestly life of all anthropomorphic cults the marks of a vicarious
consumption of time are visible.

The same pervading canon of vicarious leisure is also visibly present in
the exterior details of devout observances and need only be pointed out
in order to become obvious to all beholders. All ritual has a notable
tendency to reduce itself to a rehearsal of formulas. This development
of formula is most noticeable in the maturer cults, which have at the
same time a more austere, ornate, and severe priestly life and garb; but
it is perceptible also in the forms and methods of worship of the newer
and fresher sects, whose tastes in respect of priests, vestments, and
sanctuaries are less exacting. The rehearsal of the service (the term
"service" carries a suggestion significant for the point in question)
grows more perfunctory as the cult gains in age and consistency, and
this perfunctoriness of the rehearsal is very pleasing to the correct
devout taste. And with a good reason, for the fact of its being
perfunctory goes to say pointedly that the master for whom it is
performed is exalted above the vulgar need of actually proficuous
service on the part of his servants. They are unprofitable servants, and
there is an honorific implication for their master in their remaining
unprofitable. It is needless to point out the close analogy at this
point between the priestly office and the office of the footman. It is
pleasing to our sense of what is fitting in these matters, in either
case, to recognize in the obvious perfunctoriness of the service that it
is a pro forma execution only. There should be no show of agility or of
dexterous manipulation in the execution of the priestly office, such as
might suggest a capacity for turning off the work.

In all this there is of course an obvious implication as to the
temperament, tastes, propensities, and habits of life imputed to the
divinity by worshippers who live under the tradition of these pecuniary
canons of reputability. Through its pervading men's habits of thought,
the principle of conspicuous waste has colored the worshippers' notions
of the divinity and of the relation in which th