example of the wealthy leisure class, but
the practice and the insistence on it are no doubt strengthened by the
example of the leisure class. The requirements of decency in this matter
are very considerable and very imperative; so that even among classes
whose pecuniary position is sufficiently strong to admit a consumption
of goods considerably in excess of the subsistence minimum, the
disposable surplus left over after the more imperative physical
needs are satisfied is not infrequently diverted to the purpose of a
conspicuous decency, rather than to added physical comfort and fullness
of life. Moreover, such surplus energy as is available is also likely to
be expended in the acquisition of goods for conspicuous consumption or
conspicuous boarding. The result is that the requirements of pecuniary
reputability tend (1) to leave but a scanty subsistence minimum
available for other than conspicuous consumption, and (2) to absorb
any surplus energy which may be available after the bare physical
necessities of life have been provided for. The outcome of the whole is
a strengthening of the general conservative attitude of the community.
The institution of a leisure class hinders cultural development
immediately (1) by the inertia proper to the class itself, (2) through
its prescriptive example of conspicuous waste and of conservatism, and
(3) indirectly through that system of unequal distribution of wealth and
sustenance on which the institution itself rests. To this is to be added
that the leisure class has also a material interest in leaving things
as they are. Under the circumstances prevailing at any given time this
class is in a privileged position, and any departure from the existing
order may be expected to work to the detriment of the class rather than
the reverse. The attitude of the class, simply as influenced by its
class interest, should therefore be to let well-enough alone. This
interested motive comes in to supplement the strong instinctive bias of
the class, and so to render it even more consistently conservative than
it otherwise would be.

All this, of course, has nothing to say in the way of eulogy or
deprecation of the office of the leisure class as an exponent and
vehicle of conservatism or reversion in social structure. The inhibition
which it exercises may be salutary or the reverse. Wether it is the one
or the other in any given case is a question of casuistry rather than of
general theory. There ma