ABSTRACT
The leisure class lives by the industrial community rather than in it. Indeed, the leisure class claims the distinction as a matter of pride, and no doubt with some grounds. War is honorable, and warlike prowess is eminently honorific in the eyes of the generality of men; and this admiration of warlike prowess is itself the best voucher of a predatory temperament in the admirer of war. The enthusiasm for war, and the predatory temper of which it is the index, prevail in the largest measure among the upper classes, especially among the hereditary leisure class. The possession and the cultivation of the predatory traits of character may, of course, be desirable on other than economic grounds. Modern competition is in large part a process of self-assertion on the basis of these traits of predatory human nature. The traits of predatory man are by no means obsolete in the common run of modern populations.
