Sports satisfy these requirements of substantial futility together with a colorable make-believe of purpose.

In addition to this they afford scope for emulation, and are attractive also on that account.

In order to be decorous, an employment must conform to the leisure-class canon of reputable waste; at the same time all activity, in order to be persisted in as an habitual, even if only partial, expression of life, must conform to the generically human canon of efficiency for some serviceable objective end.

The leisure-class canon demands strict and comprehensive futility, the instinct of workmanship demands purposeful action.

The leisure-class canon of decorum acts slowly and pervasively, by a selective elimination of all substantially useful or purposeful modes of action from the accredited scheme of life; the instinct of workmanship acts impulsively and may be satisfied, provisionally, with a proximate purpose.