As the community passes out of the hunting stage proper, hunting gradually becomes differentiated into two distinct employments.

On the one hand it is a trade, carried on chiefly for gain; and from this the element of exploit is virtually absent, or it is at any rate not present in a sufficient degree to clear the pursuit of the imputation of gainful industry.

On the other hand, the chase is also a sport--an exercise of the predatory impulse simply.
As such it does not afford any appreciable pecuniary incentive, but it contains a more or less obvious element of exploit.

It is this latter development of the chase--purged of all imputation of handicraft--that alone is meritorious and fairly belongs in the scheme of life of the developed leisure class.
Abstention from labour is not only a honorific or meritorious act, but it presently comes to be a requisite of decency.

The insistence on property as the basis of reputability is very naive and very imperious during the early stages of the accumulation of wealth.