But it may still be
doubtful whether these facts are evidence of a larger proportion
of reversions in the higher than in the lower strata, even if the
same inclinations were present in the impecunious classes, it
would not as easily find expression there; since those classes
lack the means and the time and energy to give effect to their
inclinations in this respect. The prima facie evidence of the
facts can scarcely go unquestioned.
In further qualification it is to be noted that the leisure class
of today is recruited from those who have been successful in a
pecuniary way, and who, therefore, are presumably endowed with
more than an even complement of the predatory traits. Entrance
into the leisure class lies through the pecuniary employments,
and these employments, by selection and adaptation, act to admit
to the upper levels only those lines of descent that are
pecuniarily fit to survive under the predatory test. And so soon
as a case of reversion to non-predatory human nature shows itself
on these upper levels, it is commonly weeded out and thrown back
to the lower pecuniary levels. In order to hold its place in the
class, a stock must have the pecuniary temperament; otherwise its
fortune would be dissipated and it would presently lose caste.
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