492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ure 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 possession, 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 mod- 

 erate competition requires, the daily tasks of their respective situ- 

 ations, 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 other- 

 wise where class-restrictions are partially removed or wholly absent. 

 Not only are more energy and thought put into the time daily occu- 

 pied in work, but the leisure comes to be trenched upon, either liter- 

 ally 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 failui'e 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 consid- 

 erable measure, the like causes have entailed here kindred results. 



Even those who are not directly spurred on by this intensified 

 struggle for wealth and honor are indirectly spurred on by it. For 

 one of its effects is to raise the standard of living, and eventually 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 down- 

 ward 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 our- 

 selves ; and it is still more manifest in America, where the extrava- 

 gance in style of living is greater than here. 



Thus, though it seems beyond doubt that the removal of all polit- 



