ose members are nearly all prevented from rising out of the
ranks in which they were born, and have but remote possibilities of
acquiring fortunes. In those European societies which have in great
measure preserved their old types of structure (as in our own society up
to the time when the great development of industrialism began to open
ever-multiplying careers for the producing and distributing classes)
there is so little chance of overcoming the obstacles to any great rise
in position or possessions, that nearly all have to be content with
their places: entertaining little or no thought of bettering themselves.
A manifest concomitant is that, fulfilling, with such efficiency as a
moderate competition requires, the daily tasks of their respective
situations, the majority become habituated to making the best of such
pleasures as their lot affords, during whatever leisure they get. But
it is otherwise where an immense growth of trade multiplies greatly the
chances of success to the enterprising; and still more is it otherwise
where class-restrictions are partially removed or wholly absent. Not
only are more energy and thought put into the time daily occupied in
work, but the leisure comes to be trenched upon, either literally by
abridgment, or else by anxieties concerning business. Clearly, the
larger the number who, under such conditions, acquire property, or
achieve higher positions, or both, the sharper is the spur to the rest.
A raised standard of activity establishes itself and goes on rising.
Public applause given to the successful, becoming in communities thus
circumstanced the most familiar kind of public applause, increases
continually the stimulus to action. The struggle grows more and more
strenuous, and there comes an increasing dread of failure--a dread of
being "left," as the Americans say: a significant word, since it is
suggestive of a race in which the harder any one runs, the harder others
have to run to keep up with him--a word suggestive of that breathless
haste with which each passes from a success gained to the pursuit of a
further success. And on contrasting the English of to-day with the
English of a century ago, we may see how, in a considerable measure, the
like causes have entailed here kindred results.

Even those who are not directly spurred on by this intensified struggle
for wealth and honour, are indirectly spurred on by it. For one of its
effects is to raise the standard of living, and eve