So long as the system of status remains intact, and so long as the leisure class has other lines of non-industrial activity to take to than obvious killing of time in aimless and wasteful fatigation, so long no considerable departure from the leisure-class scheme of reputable life is to be looked for.

The occurrence of non-predatory temperament with the class at that stage is to be looked upon as a case of sporadic reversion.

But the reputable non-industrial outlets for the human propensity to action presently fail, through the advance of economic development, the disappearance of large game, the decline of war, the obsolescence of proprietary government, and the decay of the priestly office.

When this happens, the situation begins to change.
Human life must seek expression in one direction if it may not in another; and if the predatory outlet fails, relief is sought elsewhere.
As indicated above, the exemption from pecuniary stress has been carried farther in the case of the leisure-class women of the advanced industrial communities than in that of any other considerable group of persons.

The women may therefore be expected to show a more pronounced reversion to a non-invidious temperament than the men.