. So long as the system of status remains intact, and so long
as the leisure class has other lines of non-industrial activity to take
to than obvious killing of time in aimless and wasteful fatigation,
so long no considerable departure from the leisure-class scheme of
reputable life is to be looked for. The occurrence of non-predatory
temperament with the class at that stage is to be looked upon as a case
of sporadic reversion. But the reputable non-industrial outlets for
the human propensity to action presently fail, through the advance of
economic development, the disappearance of large game, the decline of
war, the obsolescence of proprietary government, and the decay of the
priestly office. When this happens, the situation begins to change.
Human life must seek expression in one direction if it may not in
another; and if the predatory outlet fails, relief is sought elsewhere.

As indicated above, the exemption from pecuniary stress has been
carried farther in the case of the leisure-class women of the advanced
industrial communities than in that of any other considerable group of
persons. The women may therefore be expected to show a more pronounced
reversion to a non-invidious temperament than the men. But there is also
among men of the leisure class a perceptible increase in the range and
scope of activities that proceed from aptitudes which are not to be
classed as self-regarding, and the end of which is not an invidious
distinction. So, for instance, the greater number of men who have to do
with industry in the way of pecuniarily managing an enterprise take
some interest and some pride in seeing that the work is well done and
is industrially effective, and this even apart from the profit which
may result from any improvement of this kind. The efforts of
commercial clubs and manufacturers' organizations in this direction of
non-invidious advancement of industrial efficiency are also well know.

The tendency to some other than an invidious purpose in life has worked
out in a multitude of organizations, the purpose of which is some work
of charity or of social amelioration. These organizations are often of
a quasi-religious or pseudo-religious character, and are participated in
by both men and women. Examples will present themselves in abundance
on reflection, but for the purpose of indicating the range of the
propensities in question and of characterizing them, some of the
more obvious concrete cases may be cited.