The constituency of the leisure class is kept up by a continual selective process, whereby the individuals and lines of descent that are eminently fitted for an aggressive pecuniary competition are withdraw from the lower classes.

In order to reach the upper levels the aspirant must have, not only a fair average complement of the pecuniary aptitudes, but he must have these gifts in such an eminent degree as to overcome very material difficulties that stand in the way of his ascent.

Barring accidents, the nouveaux arrives are a picked body.
This process of selective admission has, of course, always been going on; ever since the fashion of pecuniary emulation set in--which is much the same as saying, ever since the institution of a leisure class was first installed.

But the precise ground of selection has not always been the same, and the selective process has therefore not always given the same results.

In the early barbarian, or predatory stage proper, the test of fitness was prowess, in the naive sense of the word.