ntually to increase
the average rate of expenditure for all. Partly for personal enjoyment,
but much more for the display which brings admiration, those who acquire
fortunes distinguish themselves by luxurious habits. The more numerous
they become, the keener becomes the competition for that kind of public
attention given to those who make themselves conspicuous by great
expenditure. The competition spreads downwards step by step; until, to
be "respectable," those having relatively small means feel obliged to
spend more on houses, furniture, dress, and food; and are obliged to
work the harder to get the requisite larger income. This process of
causation is manifest enough among ourselves; and it is still more
manifest in America, where the extravagance in style of living is
greater than here.

Thus, though it seems beyond doubt that the removal of all political and
social barriers, and the giving to each man an unimpeded career, must be
purely beneficial; yet there is (at first) a considerable set-off from
the benefits. Among those who in older communities have by laborious
lives gained distinction, some may be heard privately to confess that
"the game is not worth the candle;" and when they hear of others who
wish to tread in their steps, shake their heads and say--"If they only
knew!" Without accepting in full so pessimistic an estimate of success,
we must still say that very generally the cost of the candle deducts
largely from the gain of the game. That which in these exceptional cases
holds among ourselves, holds more generally in America. An intensified
life, which may be summed up as--great labour, great profit, great
expenditure--has for its concomitant a wear and tear which considerably
diminishes in one direction the good gained in another. Added together,
the daily strain through many hours and the anxieties occupying many
other hours--the occupation of consciousness by feelings that are either
indifferent or painful, leaving relatively little time for occupation of
it by pleasurable feelings--tend to lower its level more than its level
is raised by the gratifications of achievement and the accompanying
benefits. So that it may, and in many cases does, result that diminished
happiness goes along with increased prosperity. Unquestionably, as long
as order is fairly maintained, that absence of political and social
restraints which gives free scope to the struggles for profit and
honour, conduces greatly to mate