But already at a point in economic evolution far antedating5 the emergence6 of the lady, specialised consumption of goods as an evidence of pecuniary7 strength had begun to work out in a more or less elaborate system. The beginning of a differentiation in consumption even antedates9 the appearance of anything that can fairly be called pecuniary strength. It is traceable back to the initial phase of predatory culture, and there is even a suggestion that an incipient10 differentiation in this respect lies back of the beginnings of the predatory life. This most primitive11 differentiation in the consumption of goods is like the later differentiation with which we are all so intimately familiar, in that it is largely of a ceremonial character, but unlike the latter it does not rest on a difference in accumulated wealth. The utility of consumption as an evidence of wealth is to be classed as a derivative12 growth. It is an adaption to a new end, by a selective process, of a distinction previously13 existing and well established in men's habits of thought.
In the earlier phases of the predatory culture the only economic differentiation is a broad distinction between an honourable14 superior class made up of the able-bodied men on the one side, and a base inferior class of labouring women on the other. According to the ideal scheme of life in force at the time it is the office of the men to consume what the women produce. Such consumption as falls to the women is merely incidental to their work; it is a means to their continued labour, and not a consumption directed to their own comfort and fulness of life. Unproductive consumption of goods is honourable, primarily as a mark of prowess and a perquisite15 of human dignity; secondarily it becomes substantially honourable to itself, especially the consumption of the more desirable things. The consumption of choice articles of food, and frequently also of rare articles of adornment16, becomes tabu to the women and children; and if there is a base (servile) class of men, the tabu holds also for them. With a further advance in culture this tabu may change into simple custom of a more or less rigorous character; but whatever be the theoretical basis of the distinction which is maintained, whether it be a tabu or a larger conventionality, the features of the conventional scheme of consumption do not change easily. When the quasi-peaceable stage of industry is reached, with its fundamental institution of chattel18 slavery, the general principle, more or less rigorously applied19, is that the base, industrious20 class should consume only what may be necessary to their subsistence. In the nature of things, luxuries and the comforts of life belong to the leisure class. Under the tabu, certain victuals21, and more particularly certain beverages22, are strictly23 reserved for the use of the superior class.
The ceremonial differentiation of the dietary is best seen in the use of intoxicating24 beverages and narcotics25. If these articles of consumption are costly26, they are felt to be noble and honorific. Therefore the base classes, primarily the women, practice an enforced continence with respect to these stimulants27, except in countries where they are obtainable at a very low cost. From archaic28 times down through all the length of the patriarchal regime it has been the office of the women to prepare and administer these luxuries, and it has been the perquisite of the men of gentle birth and breeding to consume them. Drunkenness and the other pathological consequences of the free use of stimulants therefore tend in their turn to become honorific, as being a mark, at the second remove, of the superior status of those who are able to afford the indulgence. Infirmities induced by over-indulgence are among some peoples freely recognised as manly30 attributes. It has even happened that the name for certain diseased conditions of the body arising from such an origin has passed into everyday speech as a synonym31 for "noble" or "gentle". It is only at a relatively32 early stage of culture that the symptoms of expensive vice33 are conventionally accepted as marks of a superior status, and so tend to become virtues34 and command the deference36 of the community; but the reputability that attaches to certain expensive vices37 long retains so much of its force as to appreciably38 lesson the disapprobation visited upon the men of the wealthy or noble class for any excessive indulgence. The same invidious distinction adds force to the current disapproval39 of any indulgence of this kind on the part of women, minors40, and inferiors. This invidious traditional distinction has not lost its force even among the more advanced peoples of today. Where the example set by the leisure class retains its imperative41 force in the regulation of the conventionalities, it is observable that the women still in great measure practise the same traditional continence with regard to stimulants.
This characterisation of the greater continence in the use of stimulants practised by the women of the reputable classes may seem an excessive refinement42 of logic29 at the expense of common sense. But facts within easy reach of any one who cares to know them go to say that the greater abstinence of women is in some part due to an imperative conventionality; and this conventionality is, in a general way, strongest where the patriarchal tradition—the tradition that the woman is a chattel—has retained its hold in greatest vigour43. In a sense which has been greatly qualified44 in scope and rigour, but which has by no means lost its meaning even yet, this tradition says that the woman, being a chattel, should consume only what is necessary to her sustenance,—except so far as her further consumption contributes to the comfort or the good repute of her master. The consumption of luxuries, in the true sense, is a consumption directed to the comfort of the consumer himself, and is, therefore, a mark of the master. Any such consumption by others can take place only on a basis of sufferance. In communities where the popular habits of thought have been profoundly shaped by the patriarchal tradition we may accordingly look for survivals of the tabu on luxuries at least to the extent of a conventional deprecation of their use by the unfree and dependent class. This is more particularly true as regards certain luxuries, the use of which by the dependent class would detract sensibly from the comfort or pleasure of their masters, or which are held to be of doubtful legitimacy45 on other grounds. In the apprehension46 of the great conservative middle class of Western civilisation47 the use of these various stimulants is obnoxious48 to at least one, if not both, of these objections; and it is a fact too significant to be passed over that it is precisely49 among these middle classes of the Germanic culture, with their strong surviving sense of the patriarchal proprieties50, that the women are to the greatest extent subject to a qualified tabu on narcotics and alcoholic51 beverages. With many qualifications—with more qualifications as the patriarchal tradition has gradually weakened—the general rule is felt to be right and binding52 that women should consume only for the benefit of their masters. The objection of course presents itself that expenditure53 on women's dress and household paraphernalia54 is an obvious exception to this rule; but it will appear in the sequel that this exception is much more obvious than substantial. During the earlier stages of economic development, consumption of goods without stint55, especially consumption of the better grades of goods,—ideally all consumption in excess of the subsistence minimum,—pertains56 normally to the leisure class. This restriction57 tends to disappear, at least formally, after the later peaceable stage has been reached, with private ownership of goods and an industrial system based on wage labour or on the petty household economy. But during the earlier quasi-peaceable stage, when so many of the traditions through which the institution of a leisure class has affected58 the economic life of later times were taking form and consistency59, this principle has had the force of a conventional law. It has served as the norm to which consumption has tended to conform, and any appreciable60 departure from it is to be regarded as an aberrant61 form, sure to be eliminated sooner or later in the further course of development.
The quasi-peaceable gentleman of leisure, then, not only consumes of the staff of life beyond the minimum required for subsistence and physical efficiency, but his consumption also undergoes a specialisation as regards the quality of the goods consumed. He consumes freely and of the best, in food, drink, narcotics, shelter, services, ornaments62, apparel, weapons and accoutrements, amusements, amulets63, and idols64 or divinities. In the process of gradual amelioration which takes place in the articles of his consumption, the motive65 principle and proximate aim of innovation is no doubt the higher efficiency of the improved and more elaborate products for personal comfort and well-being66. But that does not remain the sole purpose of their consumption. The canon of reputability is at hand and seizes upon such innovations as are, according to its standard, fit to survive. Since the consumption of these more excellent goods is an evidence of wealth, it becomes honorific; and conversely, the failure to consume in due quantity and quality becomes a mark of inferiority and demerit.
This growth of punctilious67 discrimination as to qualitative68 excellence69 in eating, drinking, etc. presently affects not only the manner of life, but also the training and intellectual activity of the gentleman of leisure. He is no longer simply the successful, aggressive male,—the man of strength, resource, and intrepidity70. In order to avoid stultification71 he must also cultivate his tastes, for it now becomes incumbent72 on him to discriminate73 with some nicety between the noble and the ignoble74 in consumable goods. He becomes a connoisseur75 in creditable viands76 of various degrees of merit, in manly beverages and trinkets, in seemly apparel and architecture, in weapons, games, dancers, and the narcotics. This cultivation77 of aesthetic78 faculty79 requires time and application, and the demands made upon the gentleman in this direction therefore tend to change his life of leisure into a more or less arduous80 application to the business of learning how to live a life of ostensible81 leisure in a becoming way. Closely related to the requirement that the gentleman must consume freely and of the right kind of goods, there is the requirement that he must know how to consume them in a seemly manner. His life of leisure must be conducted in due form. Hence arise good manners in the way pointed82 out in an earlier chapter. High-bred manners and ways of living are items of conformity83 to the norm of conspicuous84 leisure and conspicuous consumption.
Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure. As wealth accumulates on his hands, his own unaided effort will not avail to sufficiently85 put his opulence86 in evidence by this method. The aid of friends and competitors is therefore brought in by resorting to the giving of valuable presents and expensive feasts and entertainments. Presents and feasts had probably another origin than that of naive87 ostentation88, but they required their utility for this purpose very early, and they have retained that character to the present; so that their utility in this respect has now long been the substantial ground on which these usages rest. Costly entertainments, such as the potlatch or the ball, are peculiarly adapted to serve this end. The competitor with whom the entertainer wishes to institute a comparison is, by this method, made to serve as a means to the end. He consumes vicariously for his host at the same time that he is witness to the consumption of that excess of good things which his host is unable to dispose of single-handed, and he is also made to witness his host's facility in etiquette90.
In the giving of costly entertainments other motives91, of more genial92 kind, are of course also present. The custom of festive93 gatherings94 probably originated in motives of conviviality95 and religion; these motives are also present in the later development, but they do not continue to be the sole motives. The latter-day leisure-class festivities and entertainments may continue in some slight degree to serve the religious need and in a higher degree the needs of recreation and conviviality, but they also serve an invidious purpose; and they serve it none the less effectually for having a colorable non-invidious ground in these more avowable motives. But the economic effect of these social amenities96 is not therefore lessened97, either in the vicarious consumption of goods or in the exhibition of difficult and costly achievements in etiquette.
As wealth accumulates, the leisure class develops further in function and structure, and there arises a differentiation within the class. There is a more or less elaborate system of rank and grades. This differentiation is furthered by the inheritance of wealth and the consequent inheritance of gentility. With the inheritance of gentility goes the inheritance of obligatory98 leisure; and gentility of a sufficient potency99 to entail100 a life of leisure may be inherited without the complement101 of wealth required to maintain a dignified102 leisure. Gentle blood may be transmitted without goods enough to afford a reputably free consumption at one's ease. Hence results a class of impecunious103 gentlemen of leisure, incidentally referred to already. These half-caste gentlemen of leisure fall into a system of hierarchical gradations. Those who stand near the higher and the highest grades of the wealthy leisure class, in point of birth, or in point of wealth, or both, outrank the remoter-born and the pecuniarily104 weaker. These lower grades, especially the impecunious, or marginal, gentlemen of leisure, affiliate106 themselves by a system of dependence107 or fealty108 to the great ones; by so doing they gain an increment109 of repute, or of the means with which to lead a life of leisure, from their patron. They become his courtiers or retainers, servants; and being fed and countenanced110 by their patron they are indices of his rank and vicarious consumer of his superfluous111 wealth. Many of these affiliated112 gentlemen of leisure are at the same time lesser113 men of substance in their own right; so that some of them are scarcely at all, others only partially114, to be rated as vicarious consumers. So many of them, however, as make up the retainer and hangers-on of the patron may be classed as vicarious consumer without qualification. Many of these again, and also many of the other aristocracy of less degree, have in turn attached to their persons a more or less comprehensive group of vicarious consumer in the persons of their wives and children, their servants, retainers, etc.
Throughout this graduated scheme of vicarious leisure and vicarious consumption the rule holds that these offices must be performed in some such manner, or under some such circumstance or insignia, as shall point plainly to the master to whom this leisure or consumption pertains, and to whom therefore the resulting increment of good repute of right inures115. The consumption and leisure executed by these persons for their master or patron represents an investment on his part with a view to an increase of good fame. As regards feasts and largesses this is obvious enough, and the imputation116 of repute to the host or patron here takes place immediately, on the ground of common notoriety. Where leisure and consumption is performed vicariously by henchmen and retainers, imputation of the resulting repute to the patron is effected by their residing near his person so that it may be plain to all men from what source they draw. As the group whose good esteem117 is to be secured in this way grows larger, more patent means are required to indicate the imputation of merit for the leisure performed, and to this end uniforms, badges, and liveries come into vogue118. The wearing of uniforms or liveries implies a considerable degree of dependence, and may even be said to be a mark of servitude, real or ostensible. The wearers of uniforms and liveries may be roughly divided into two classes-the free and the servile, or the noble and the ignoble. The services performed by them are likewise divisible into noble and ignoble. Of course the distinction is not observed with strict consistency in practice; the less debasing of the base services and the less honorific of the noble functions are not infrequently merged119 in the same person. But the general distinction is not on that account to be overlooked. What may add some perplexity is the fact that this fundamental distinction between noble and ignoble, which rests on the nature of the ostensible service performed, is traversed by a secondary distinction into honorific and humiliating, resting on the rank of the person for whom the service is performed or whose livery is worn. So, those offices which are by right the proper employment of the leisure class are noble; such as government, fighting, hunting, the care of arms and accoutrements, and the like—in short, those which may be classed as ostensibly predatory employments. On the other hand, those employments which properly fall to the industrious class are ignoble; such as handicraft or other productive labor8, menial services and the like. But a base service performed for a person of very high degree may become a very honorific office; as for instance the office of a Maid of Honor or of a Lady in Waiting to the Queen, or the King's Master of the Horse or his Keeper of the Hounds. The two offices last named suggest a principle of some general bearing. Whenever, as in these cases, the menial service in question has to do directly with the primary leisure employments of fighting and hunting, it easily acquires a reflected honorific character. In this way great honor may come to attach to an employment which in its own nature belongs to the baser sort. In the later development of peaceable industry, the usage of employing an idle corps120 of uniformed men-at-arms gradually lapses121. Vicarious consumption by dependents bearing the insignia of their patron or master narrows down to a corps of liveried menials. In a heightened degree, therefore, the livery comes to be a badge of servitude, or rather servility. Something of a honorific character always attached to the livery of the armed retainer, but this honorific character disappears when the livery becomes the exclusive badge of the menial. The livery becomes obnoxious to nearly all who are required to wear it. We are yet so little removed from a state of effective slavery as still to be fully122 sensitive to the sting of any imputation of servility. This antipathy123 asserts itself even in the case of the liveries or uniforms which some corporations prescribe as the distinctive124 dress of their employees. In this country the aversion even goes the length of discrediting—in a mild and uncertain way—those government employments, military and civil, which require the wearing of a livery or uniform.
With the disappearance125 of servitude, the number of vicarious consumers attached to any one gentleman tends, on the whole, to decrease. The like is of course true, and perhaps in a still higher degree, of the number of dependents who perform vicarious leisure for him. In a general way, though not wholly nor consistently, these two groups coincide. The dependent who was first delegated for these duties was the wife, or the chief wife; and, as would be expected, in the later development of the institution, when the number of persons by whom these duties are customarily performed gradually narrows, the wife remains126 the last. In the higher grades of society a large volume of both these kinds of service is required; and here the wife is of course still assisted in the work by a more or less numerous corps of menials. But as we descend127 the social scale, the point is presently reached where the duties of vicarious leisure and consumption devolve upon the wife alone. In the communities of the Western culture, this point is at present found among the lower middle class.
And here occurs a curious inversion128. It is a fact of common observance that in this lower middle class there is no pretense129 of leisure on the part of the head of the household. Through force of circumstances it has fallen into disuse. But the middle-class wife still carries on the business of vicarious leisure, for the good name of the household and its master. In descending130 the social scale in any modern industrial community, the primary fact-the conspicuous leisure of the master of the household-disappears at a relatively high point. The head of the middle-class household has been reduced by economic circumstances to turn his hand to gaining a livelihood131 by occupations which often partake largely of the character of industry, as in the case of the ordinary business man of today. But the derivative fact-the vicarious leisure and consumption rendered by the wife, and the auxiliary132 vicarious performance of leisure by menials-remains in vogue as a conventionality which the demands of reputability will not suffer to be slighted. It is by no means an uncommon133 spectacle to find a man applying himself to work with the utmost assiduity, in order that his wife may in due form render for him that degree of vicarious leisure which the common sense of the time demands.
The leisure rendered by the wife in such cases is, of course, not a simple manifestation134 of idleness or indolence. It almost invariably occurs disguised under some form of work or household duties or social amenities, which prove on analysis to serve little or no ulterior end beyond showing that she does not occupy herself with anything that is gainful or that is of substantial use. As has already been noticed under the head of manners, the greater part of the customary round of domestic cares to which the middle-class housewife gives her time and effort is of this character. Not that the results of her attention to household matters, of a decorative135 and mundificatory character, are not pleasing to the sense of men trained in middle-class proprieties; but the taste to which these effects of household adornment and tidiness appeal is a taste which has been formed under the selective guidance of a canon of propriety136 that demands just these evidences of wasted effort. The effects are pleasing to us chiefly because we have been taught to find them pleasing. There goes into these domestic duties much solicitude137 for a proper combination of form and color, and for other ends that are to be classed as aesthetic in the proper sense of the term; and it is not denied that effects having some substantial aesthetic value are sometimes attained138. Pretty much all that is here insisted on is that, as regards these amenities of life, the housewife's efforts are under the guidance of traditions that have been shaped by the law of conspicuously139 wasteful140 expenditure of time and substance. If beauty or comfort is achieved-and it is a more or less fortuitous circumstance if they are-they must be achieved by means and methods that commend themselves to the great economic law of wasted effort. The more reputable, "presentable" portion of middle-class household paraphernalia are, on the one hand, items of conspicuous consumption, and on the other hand, apparatus141 for putting in evidence the vicarious leisure rendered by the housewife.
The requirement of vicarious consumption at the hands of the wife continues in force even at a lower point in the pecuniary scale than the requirement of vicarious leisure. At a point below which little if any pretense of wasted effort, in ceremonial cleanness and the like, is observable, and where there is assuredly no conscious attempt at ostensible leisure, decency142 still requires the wife to consume some goods conspicuously for the reputability of the household and its head. So that, as the latter-day outcome of this evolution of an archaic institution, the wife, who was at the outset the drudge143 and chattel of the man, both in fact and in theory—the producer of goods for him to consume—has become the ceremonial consumer of goods which he produces. But she still quite unmistakably remains his chattel in theory; for the habitual144 rendering145 of vicarious leisure and consumption is the abiding146 mark of the unfree servant.
This vicarious consumption practiced by the household of the middle and lower classes can not be counted as a direct expression of the leisure-class scheme of life, since the household of this pecuniary grade does not belong within the leisure class. It is rather that the leisure-class scheme of life here comes to an expression at the second remove. The leisure class stands at the head of the social structure in point of reputability; and its manner of life and its standards of worth therefore afford the norm of reputability for the community. The observance of these standards, in some degree of approximation, becomes incumbent upon all classes lower in the scale. In modern civilized147 communities the lines of demarcation between social classes have grown vague and transient, and wherever this happens the norm of reputability imposed by the upper class extends its coercive influence with but slight hindrance148 down through the social structure to the lowest strata149. The result is that the members of each stratum150 accept as their ideal of decency the scheme of life in vogue in the next higher stratum, and bend their energies to live up to that ideal. On pain of forfeiting151 their good name and their self-respect in case of failure, they must conform to the accepted code, at least in appearance. The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods. Accordingly, both of these methods are in vogue as far down the scale as it remains possible; and in the lower strata in which the two methods are employed, both offices are in great part delegated to the wife and children of the household. Lower still, where any degree of leisure, even ostensible, has become impracticable for the wife, the conspicuous consumption of goods remains and is carried on by the wife and children. The man of the household also can do something in this direction, and indeed, he commonly does; but with a still lower descent into the levels of indigence—along the margin105 of the slums—the man, and presently also the children, virtually cease to consume valuable goods for appearances, and the woman remains virtually the sole exponent152 of the household's pecuniary decency. No class of society, not even the most abjectly153 poor, forgoes154 all customary conspicuous consumption. The last items of this category of consumption are not given up except under stress of the direst necessity. Very much of squalor and discomfort155 will be endured before the last trinket or the last pretense of pecuniary decency is put away. There is no class and no country that has yielded so abjectly before the pressure of physical want as to deny themselves all gratification of this higher or spiritual need.
From the foregoing survey of the growth of conspicuous leisure and consumption, it appears that the utility of both alike for the purposes of reputability lies in the element of waste that is common to both. In the one case it is a waste of time and effort, in the other it is a waste of goods. Both are methods of demonstrating the possession of wealth, and the two are conventionally accepted as equivalents. The choice between them is a question of advertising156 expediency157 simply, except so far as it may be affected by other standards of propriety, springing from a different source. On grounds of expediency the preference may be given to the one or the other at different stages of the economic development. The question is, which of the two methods will most effectively reach the persons whose convictions it is desired to affect. Usage has answered this question in different ways under different circumstances.
So long as the community or social group is small enough and compact enough to be effectually reached by common notoriety alone that is to say, so long as the human environment to which the individual is required to adapt himself in respect of reputability is comprised within his sphere of personal acquaintance and neighborhood gossip—so long the one method is about as effective as the other. Each will therefore serve about equally well during the earlier stages of social growth. But when the differentiation has gone farther and it becomes necessary to reach a wider human environment, consumption begins to hold over leisure as an ordinary means of decency. This is especially true during the later, peaceable economic stage. The means of communication and the mobility158 of the population now expose the individual to the observation of many persons who have no other means of judging of his reputability than the display of goods (and perhaps of breeding) which he is able to make while he is under their direct observation.
The modern organization of industry works in the same direction also by another line. The exigencies159 of the modern industrial system frequently place individuals and households in juxtaposition160 between whom there is little contact in any other sense than that of juxtaposition. One's neighbors, mechanically speaking, often are socially not one's neighbors, or even acquaintances; and still their transient good opinion has a high degree of utility. The only practicable means of impressing one's pecuniary ability on these unsympathetic observers of one's everyday life is an unremitting demonstration161 of ability to pay. In the modern community there is also a more frequent attendance at large gatherings of people to whom one's everyday life is unknown; in such places as churches, theaters, ballrooms162, hotels, parks, shops, and the like. In order to impress these transient observers, and to retain one's self-complacency under their observation, the signature of one's pecuniary strength should be written in characters which he who runs may read. It is evident, therefore, that the present trend of the development is in the direction of heightening the utility of conspicuous consumption as compared with leisure.
It is also noticeable that the serviceability of consumption as a means of repute, as well as the insistence163 on it as an element of decency, is at its best in those portions of the community where the human contact of the individual is widest and the mobility of the population is greatest. Conspicuous consumption claims a relatively larger portion of the income of the urban than of the rural population, and the claim is also more imperative. The result is that, in order to keep up a decent appearance, the former habitually164 live hand-to-mouth to a greater extent than the latter. So it comes, for instance, that the American farmer and his wife and daughters are notoriously less modish165 in their dress, as well as less urbane166 in their manners, than the city artisan's family with an equal income. It is not that the city population is by nature much more eager for the peculiar89 complacency that comes of a conspicuous consumption, nor has the rural population less regard for pecuniary decency. But the provocation167 to this line of evidence, as well as its transient effectiveness, is more decided168 in the city. This method is therefore more readily resorted to, and in the struggle to outdo one another the city population push their normal standard of conspicuous consumption to a higher point, with the result that a relatively greater expenditure in this direction is required to indicate a given degree of pecuniary decency in the city. The requirement of conformity to this higher conventional standard becomes mandatory169. The standard of decency is higher, class for class, and this requirement of decent appearance must be lived up to on pain of losing caste.
Consumption becomes a larger element in the standard of living in the city than in the country. Among the country population its place is to some extent taken by savings170 and home comforts known through the medium of neighborhood gossip sufficiently to serve the like general purpose of Pecuniary repute. These home comforts and the leisure indulged in—where the indulgence is found—are of course also in great part to be classed as items of conspicuous consumption; and much the same is to be said of the savings. The smaller amount of the savings laid by by the artisan class is no doubt due, in some measure, to the fact that in the case of the artisan the savings are a less effective means of advertisement, relative to the environment in which he is placed, than are the savings of the people living on farms and in the small villages. Among the latter, everybody's affairs, especially everybody's pecuniary status, are known to everybody else. Considered by itself simply—taken in the first degree—this added provocation to which the artisan and the urban laboring171 classes are exposed may not very seriously decrease the amount of savings; but in its cumulative172 action, through raising the standard of decent expenditure, its deterrent173 effect on the tendency to save cannot but be very great.
A felicitous174 illustration of the manner in which this canon of reputability works out its results is seen in the practice of dram-drinking, "treating," and smoking in public places, which is customary among the laborers175 and handicraftsmen of the towns, and among the lower middle class of the urban population generally Journeymen printers may be named as a class among whom this form of conspicuous consumption has a great vogue, and among whom it carries with it certain well-marked consequences that are often deprecated. The peculiar habits of the class in this respect are commonly set down to some kind of an ill-defined moral deficiency with which this class is credited, or to a morally deleterious influence which their occupation is supposed to exert, in some unascertainable way, upon the men employed in it. The state of the case for the men who work in the composition and press rooms of the common run of printing-houses may be summed up as follows. Skill acquired in any printing-house or any city is easily turned to account in almost any other house or city; that is to say, the inertia176 due to special training is slight. Also, this occupation requires more than the average of intelligence and general information, and the men employed in it are therefore ordinarily more ready than many others to take advantage of any slight variation in the demand for their labor from one place to another. The inertia due to the home feeling is consequently also slight. At the same time the wages in the trade are high enough to make movement from place to place relatively easy. The result is a great mobility of the labor employed in printing; perhaps greater than in any other equally well-defined and considerable body of workmen. These men are constantly thrown in contact with new groups of acquaintances, with whom the relations established are transient or ephemeral, but whose good opinion is valued none the less for the time being. The human proclivity177 to ostentation, reenforced by sentiments of good-fellowship, leads them to spend freely in those directions which will best serve these needs. Here as elsewhere prescription178 seizes upon the custom as soon as it gains a vogue, and incorporates it in the accredited179 standard of decency. The next step is to make this standard of decency the point of departure for a new move in advance in the same direction—for there is no merit in simple spiritless conformity to a standard of dissipation that is lived up to as a matter of course by everyone in the trade.
The greater prevalence of dissipation among printers than among the average of workmen is accordingly attributable, at least in some measure, to the greater ease of movement and the more transient character of acquaintance and human contact in this trade. But the substantial ground of this high requirement in dissipation is in the last analysis no other than that same propensity180 for a manifestation of dominance and pecuniary decency which makes the French peasant-proprietor parsimonious181 and frugal182, and induces the American millionaire to found colleges, hospitals and museums. If the canon of conspicuous consumption were not offset183 to a considerable extent by other features of human nature, alien to it, any saving should logically be impossible for a population situated184 as the artisan and laboring classes of the cities are at present, however high their wages or their income might be.
But there are other standards of repute and other, more or less imperative, canons of conduct, besides wealth and its manifestation, and some of these come in to accentuate185 or to qualify the broad, fundamental canon of conspicuous waste. Under the simple test of effectiveness for advertising, we should expect to find leisure and the conspicuous consumption of goods dividing the field of pecuniary emulation186 pretty evenly between them at the outset. Leisure might then be expected gradually to yield ground and tend to obsolescence187 as the economic development goes forward, and the community increases in size; while the conspicuous consumption of goods should gradually gain in importance, both absolutely and relatively, until it had absorbed all the available product, leaving nothing over beyond a bare livelihood. But the actual course of development has been somewhat different from this ideal scheme. Leisure held the first place at the start, and came to hold a rank very much above wasteful consumption of goods, both as a direct exponent of wealth and as an element in the standard of decency, during the quasi-peaceable culture. From that point onward188, consumption has gained ground, until, at present, it unquestionably holds the primacy, though it is still far from absorbing the entire margin of production above the subsistence minimum.
The early ascendency of leisure as a means of reputability is traceable to the archaic distinction between noble and ignoble employments. Leisure is honorable and becomes imperative partly because it shows exemption189 from ignoble labor. The archaic differentiation into noble and ignoble classes is based on an invidious distinction between employments as honorific or debasing; and this traditional distinction grows into an imperative canon of decency during the early quasi-peaceable stage. Its ascendency is furthered by the fact that leisure is still fully as effective an evidence of wealth as consumption. Indeed, so effective is it in the relatively small and stable human environment to which the individual is exposed at that cultural stage, that, with the aid of the archaic tradition which deprecates all productive labor, it gives rise to a large impecunious leisure class, and it even tends to limit the production of the community's industry to the subsistence minimum. This extreme inhibition of industry is avoided because slave labor, working under a compulsion more vigorous than that of reputability, is forced to turn out a product in excess of the subsistence minimum of the working class. The subsequent relative decline in the use of conspicuous leisure as a basis of repute is due partly to an increasing relative effectiveness of consumption as an evidence of wealth; but in part it is traceable to another force, alien, and in some degree antagonistic190, to the usage of conspicuous waste.
This alien factor is the instinct of workmanship. Other circumstances permitting, that instinct disposes men to look with favor upon productive efficiency and on whatever is of human use. It disposes them to deprecate waste of substance or effort. The instinct of workmanship is present in all men, and asserts itself even under very adverse191 circumstances. So that however wasteful a given expenditure may be in reality, it must at least have some colorable excuse in the way of an ostensible purpose. The manner in which, under special circumstances, the instinct eventuates in a taste for exploit and an invidious discrimination between noble and ignoble classes has been indicated in an earlier chapter. In so far as it comes into conflict with the law of conspicuous waste, the instinct of workmanship expresses itself not so much in insistence on substantial usefulness as in an abiding sense of the odiousness193 and aesthetic impossibility of what is obviously futile194. Being of the nature of an instinctive195 affection, its guidance touches chiefly and immediately the obvious and apparent violations196 of its requirements. It is only less promptly197 and with less constraining198 force that it reaches such substantial violations of its requirements as are appreciated only upon reflection.
So long as all labor continues to be performed exclusively or usually by slaves, the baseness of all productive effort is too constantly and deterrently present in the mind of men to allow the instinct of workmanship seriously to take effect in the direction of industrial usefulness; but when the quasi-peaceable stage (with slavery and status) passes into the peaceable stage of industry (with wage labor and cash payment) the instinct comes more effectively into play. It then begins aggressively to shape men's views of what is meritorious199, and asserts itself at least as an auxiliary canon of self-complacency. All extraneous200 considerations apart, those persons (adult) are but a vanishing minority today who harbor no inclination201 to the accomplishment202 of some end, or who are not impelled203 of their own motion to shape some object or fact or relation for human use. The propensity may in large measure be overborne by the more immediately constraining incentive204 to a reputable leisure and an avoidance of indecorous usefulness, and it may therefore work itself out in make-believe only; as for instance in "social duties," and in quasi-artistic or quasi-scholarly accomplishments205, in the care and decoration of the house, in sewing-circle activity or dress reform, in proficiency206 at dress, cards, yachting, golf, and various sports. But the fact that it may under stress of circumstances eventuate in inanities207 no more disproves the presence of the instinct than the reality of the brooding instinct is disproved by inducing a hen to sit on a nestful of china eggs.
This latter-day uneasy reaching-out for some form of purposeful activity that shall at the same time not be indecorously productive of either individual or collective gain marks a difference of attitude between the modern leisure class and that of the quasi-peaceable stage. At the earlier stage, as was said above, the all-dominating institution of slavery and status acted resistlessly to discountenance exertion208 directed to other than naively209 predatory ends. It was still possible to find some habitual employment for the inclination to action in the way of forcible aggression210 or repression211 directed against hostile groups or against the subject classes within the group; and this served to relieve the pressure and draw off the energy of the leisure class without a resort to actually useful, or even ostensibly useful employments. The practice of hunting also served the same purpose in some degree. When the community developed into a peaceful industrial organization, and when fuller occupation of the land had reduced the opportunities for the hunt to an inconsiderable residue212, the pressure of energy seeking purposeful employment was left to find an outlet213 in some other direction. The ignominy which attaches to useful effort also entered upon a less acute phase with the disappearance of compulsory214 labor; and the instinct of workmanship then came to assert itself with more persistence215 and consistency.
The line of least resistance has changed in some measure, and the energy which formerly216 found a vent17 in predatory activity, now in part takes the direction of some ostensibly useful end. Ostensibly purposeless leisure has come to be deprecated, especially among that large portion of the leisure class whose plebeian217 origin acts to set them at variance218 with the tradition of the otium cum dignitate. But that canon of reputability which discountenances all employment that is of the nature of productive effort is still at hand, and will permit nothing beyond the most transient vogue to any employment that is substantially useful or productive. The consequence is that a change has been wrought219 in the conspicuous leisure practiced by the leisure class; not so much in substance as in form. A reconciliation220 between the two conflicting requirements is effected by a resort to make-believe. Many and intricate polite observances and social duties of a ceremonial nature are developed; many organizations are founded, with some specious221 object of amelioration embodied222 in their official style and title; there is much coming and going, and a deal of talk, to the end that the talkers may not have occasion to reflect on what is the effectual economic value of their traffic. And along with the make-believe of purposeful employment, and woven inextricably into its texture223, there is commonly, if not invariably, a more or less appreciable element of purposeful effort directed to some serious end.
In the narrower sphere of vicarious leisure a similar change has gone forward. Instead of simply passing her time in visible idleness, as in the best days of the patriarchal regime, the housewife of the advanced peaceable stage applies herself assiduously to household cares. The salient features of this development of domestic service have already been indicated. Throughout the entire evolution of conspicuous expenditure, whether of goods or of services or human life, runs the obvious implication that in order to effectually mend the consumer's good fame it must be an expenditure of superfluities. In order to be reputable it must be wasteful. No merit would accrue224 from the consumption of the bare necessaries of life, except by comparison with the abjectly poor who fall short even of the subsistence minimum; and no standard of expenditure could result from such a comparison, except the most prosaic225 and unattractive level of decency. A standard of life would still be possible which should admit of invidious comparison in other respects than that of opulence; as, for instance, a comparison in various directions in the manifestation of moral, physical, intellectual, or aesthetic force. Comparison in all these directions is in vogue today; and the comparison made in these respects is commonly so inextricably bound up with the pecuniary comparison as to be scarcely distinguishable from the latter. This is especially true as regards the current rating of expressions of intellectual and aesthetic force or proficiency' so that we frequently interpret as aesthetic or intellectual a difference which in substance is pecuniary only.
The use of the term "waste" is in one respect an unfortunate one. As used in the speech of everyday life the word carries an undertone of deprecation. It is here used for want of a better term that will adequately describe the same range of motives and of phenomena226, and it is not to be taken in an odious192 sense, as implying an illegitimate expenditure of human products or of human life. In the view of economic theory the expenditure in question is no more and no less legitimate227 than any other expenditure. It is here called "waste" because this expenditure does not serve human life or human well-being on the whole, not because it is waste or misdirection of effort or expenditure as viewed from the standpoint of the individual consumer who chooses it. If he chooses it, that disposes of the question of its relative utility to him, as compared with other forms of consumption that would not be deprecated on account of their wastefulness228. Whatever form of expenditure the consumer chooses, or whatever end he seeks in making his choice, has utility to him by virtue35 of his preference. As seen from the point of view of the individual consumer, the question of wastefulness does not arise within the scope of economic theory proper. The use of the word "waste" as a technical term, therefore, implies no deprecation of the motives or of the ends sought by the consumer under this canon of conspicuous waste.
But it is, on other grounds, worth noting that the term "waste" in the language of everyday life implies deprecation of what is characterized as wasteful. This common-sense implication is itself an outcropping of the instinct of workmanship. The popular reprobation229 of waste goes to say that in order to be at peace with himself the common man must be able to see in any and all human effort and human enjoyment230 an enhancement of life and well-being on the whole. In order to meet with unqualified approval, any economic fact must approve itself under the test of impersonal231 usefulness—usefulness as seen from the point of view of the generically232 human. Relative or competitive advantage of one individual in comparison with another does not satisfy the economic conscience, and therefore competitive expenditure has not the approval of this conscience.
In strict accuracy nothing should be included under the head of conspicuous waste but such expenditure as is incurred233 on the ground of an invidious pecuniary comparison. But in order to bring any given item or element in under this head it is not necessary that it should be recognized as waste in this sense by the person incurring234 the expenditure. It frequently happens that an element of the standard of living which set out with being primarily wasteful, ends with becoming, in the apprehension of the consumer, a necessary of life; and it may in this way become as indispensable as any other item of the consumer's habitual expenditure. As items which sometimes fall under this head, and are therefore available as illustrations of the manner in which this principle applies, may be cited carpets and tapestries235, silver table service, waiter's services, silk hats, starched236 linen237, many articles of jewelry238 and of dress. The indispensability of these things after the habit and the convention have been formed, however, has little to say in the classification of expenditures239 as waste or not waste in the technical meaning of the word. The test to which all expenditure must be brought in an attempt to decide that point is the question whether it serves directly to enhance human life on the whole-whether it furthers the life process taken impersonally240. For this is the basis of award of the instinct of workmanship, and that instinct is the court of final appeal in any question of economic truth or adequacy. It is a question as to the award rendered by a dispassionate common sense. The question is, therefore, not whether, under the existing circumstances of individual habit and social custom, a given expenditure conduces to the particular consumer's gratification or peace of mind; but whether, aside from acquired tastes and from the canons of usage and conventional decency, its result is a net gain in comfort or in the fullness of life. Customary expenditure must be classed under the head of waste in so far as the custom on which it rests is traceable to the habit of making an invidious pecuniary comparison-in so far as it is conceived that it could not have become customary and prescriptive without the backing of this principle of pecuniary reputability or relative economic success. It is obviously not necessary that a given object of expenditure should be exclusively wasteful in order to come in under the category of conspicuous waste. An article may be useful and wasteful both, and its utility to the consumer may be made up of use and waste in the most varying proportions. Consumable goods, and even productive goods, generally show the two elements in combination, as constituents241 of their utility; although, in a general way, the element of waste tends to predominate in articles of consumption, while the contrary is true of articles designed for productive use. Even in articles which appear at first glance to serve for pure ostentation only, it is always possible to detect the presence of some, at least ostensible, useful purpose; and on the other hand, even in special machinery242 and tools contrived243 for some particular industrial process, as well as in the rudest appliances of human industry, the traces of conspicuous waste, or at least of the habit of ostentation, usually become evident on a close scrutiny244. It would be hazardous245 to assert that a useful purpose is ever absent from the utility of any article or of any service, however obviously its prime purpose and chief element is conspicuous waste; and it would be only less hazardous to assert of any primarily useful product that the element of waste is in no way concerned in its value, immediately or remotely.
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1
differentiation
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| n.区别，区分 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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5
antedating
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| v.（在历史上）比…为早( antedate的现在分词 )；先于；早于；（在信、支票等上）填写比实际日期早的日期 | |
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emergence
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| n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体 | |
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pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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antedates
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| v.（在历史上）比…为早( antedate的第三人称单数 )；先于；早于；（在信、支票等上）填写比实际日期早的日期 | |
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incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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derivative
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| n.派(衍)生物；adj.非独创性的，模仿他人的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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perquisite
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| n.固定津贴，福利 | |
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adornment
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| n.装饰；装饰品 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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chattel
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| n.动产；奴隶 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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beverages
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| n.饮料( beverage的名词复数 ) | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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narcotics
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| n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 )；毒品；毒 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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synonym
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| n.同义词，换喻词 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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appreciably
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| adv.相当大地 | |
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disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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minors
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| n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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legitimacy
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| n.合法，正当 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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50
proprieties
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| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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51
alcoholic
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| adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者 | |
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52
binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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53
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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paraphernalia
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| n.装备；随身用品 | |
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stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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56
pertains
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| 关于( pertain的第三人称单数 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
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restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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aberrant
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| adj.畸变的，异常的，脱离常轨的 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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amulets
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| n.护身符( amulet的名词复数 ) | |
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idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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punctilious
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| adj.谨慎的，谨小慎微的 | |
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qualitative
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| adj.性质上的，质的，定性的 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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intrepidity
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| n.大胆，刚勇；大胆的行为 | |
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71
stultification
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| n.使显得愚笨，使变无效 | |
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incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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73
discriminate
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| v.区别，辨别，区分；有区别地对待 | |
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ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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75
connoisseur
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| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
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76
viands
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| n.食品，食物 | |
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77
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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78
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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79
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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80
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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81
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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82
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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83
conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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84
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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85
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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86
opulence
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| n.财富，富裕 | |
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87
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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88
ostentation
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| n.夸耀，卖弄 | |
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89
peculiar
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|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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90
etiquette
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|
| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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91
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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92
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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93
festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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94
gatherings
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|
| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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95
conviviality
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|
| n.欢宴，高兴，欢乐 | |
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96
amenities
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|
| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
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97
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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98
obligatory
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|
| adj.强制性的，义务的，必须的 | |
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99
potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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100
entail
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| vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要 | |
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101
complement
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| n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足 | |
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102
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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103
impecunious
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|
| adj.不名一文的，贫穷的 | |
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104
pecuniarily
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|
| adv.在金钱上，在金钱方面 | |
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105
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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106
affiliate
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|
| vt.使隶(附)属于；n.附属机构，分公司 | |
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107
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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108
fealty
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| n.忠贞，忠节 | |
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109
increment
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|
| n.增值，增价；提薪，增加工资 | |
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110
countenanced
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|
| v.支持，赞同，批准( countenance的过去式 ) | |
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111
superfluous
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|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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112
affiliated
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| adj. 附属的, 有关连的 | |
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113
lesser
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|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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114
partially
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|
| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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115
inures
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|
| vt.使习惯（inure的第三人称单数形式） | |
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116
imputation
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|
| n.归罪，责难 | |
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117
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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118
Vogue
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|
| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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119
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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120
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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121
lapses
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|
| n.失误，过失( lapse的名词复数 )；小毛病；行为失检；偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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122
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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123
antipathy
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|
| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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124
distinctive
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|
| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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125
disappearance
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|
| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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126
remains
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|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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127
descend
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|
| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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128
inversion
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|
| n.反向，倒转，倒置 | |
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129
pretense
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|
| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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130
descending
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|
| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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131
livelihood
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|
| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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132
auxiliary
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|
| adj.辅助的，备用的 | |
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133
uncommon
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|
| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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134
manifestation
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|
| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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135
decorative
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|
| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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136
propriety
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|
| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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137
solicitude
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|
| n.焦虑 | |
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138
attained
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|
| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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139
conspicuously
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|
| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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140
wasteful
|
|
| adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的 | |
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141
apparatus
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|
| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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142
decency
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|
| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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143
drudge
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|
| n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳 | |
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144
habitual
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|
| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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145
rendering
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|
| n.表现，描写 | |
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146
abiding
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|
| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
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147
civilized
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|
| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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148
hindrance
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|
| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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149
strata
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|
| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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150
stratum
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|
| n.地层，社会阶层 | |
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151
forfeiting
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|
| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的现在分词 ) | |
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152
exponent
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|
| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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153
abjectly
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|
| 凄惨地； 绝望地； 糟透地； 悲惨地 | |
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154
forgoes
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|
| v.没有也行，放弃( forgo的第三人称单数 ) | |
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155
discomfort
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|
| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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156
advertising
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|
| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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157
expediency
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|
| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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158
mobility
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|
| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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159
exigencies
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|
| n.急切需要 | |
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160
juxtaposition
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|
| n.毗邻，并置，并列 | |
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161
demonstration
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|
| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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162
ballrooms
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|
| n.舞厅( ballroom的名词复数 ) | |
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163
insistence
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|
| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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164
habitually
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|
| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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165
modish
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|
| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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166
urbane
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|
| adj.温文尔雅的，懂礼的 | |
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167
provocation
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|
| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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168
decided
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|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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169
mandatory
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|
| adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者 | |
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170
savings
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|
| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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171
laboring
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|
| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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172
cumulative
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|
| adj.累积的，渐增的 | |
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173
deterrent
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|
| n.阻碍物，制止物；adj.威慑的，遏制的 | |
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174
felicitous
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|
| adj.恰当的，巧妙的；n.恰当，贴切 | |
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175
laborers
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|
| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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176
inertia
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|
| adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝 | |
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177
proclivity
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|
| n.倾向，癖性 | |
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178
prescription
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|
| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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179
accredited
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|
| adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于 | |
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180
propensity
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|
| n.倾向；习性 | |
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181
parsimonious
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|
| adj.吝啬的，质量低劣的 | |
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182
frugal
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|
| adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的 | |
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183
offset
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|
| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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184
situated
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|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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185
accentuate
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|
| v.着重，强调 | |
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186
emulation
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|
| n.竞争；仿效 | |
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187
obsolescence
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|
| n.过时，陈旧，废弃 | |
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188
onward
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|
| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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189
exemption
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|
| n.豁免，免税额，免除 | |
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190
antagonistic
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|
| adj.敌对的 | |
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191
adverse
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|
| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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192
odious
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|
| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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193
odiousness
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|
| n.可憎；讨厌；可恨 | |
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194
futile
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|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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195
instinctive
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|
| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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196
violations
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|
| 违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸 | |
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197
promptly
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|
| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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198
constraining
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|
| 强迫( constrain的现在分词 )； 强使； 限制； 约束 | |
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199
meritorious
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|
| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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200
extraneous
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|
| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
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201
inclination
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|
| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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202
accomplishment
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|
| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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203
impelled
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|
| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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204
incentive
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|
| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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205
accomplishments
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|
| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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206
proficiency
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|
| n.精通，熟练，精练 | |
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207
inanities
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|
| n.空洞( inanity的名词复数 )；浅薄；愚蠢；空洞的言行 | |
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208
exertion
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|
| n.尽力，努力 | |
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209
naively
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| adv. 天真地 | |
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210
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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residue
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| n.残余，剩余，残渣 | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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plebeian
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| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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specious
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| adj.似是而非的；adv.似是而非地 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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accrue
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| v.(利息等)增大，增多 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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wastefulness
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| 浪费，挥霍，耗费 | |
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reprobation
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| n.斥责 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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generically
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| adv.一般地 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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incurring
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| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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starched
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| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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expenditures
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| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
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impersonally
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| ad.非人称地 | |
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constituents
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| n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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