As not only the strong man by his strength, but the cunning man by his cunning, can get that wealth or property which are the insignia of prowess, property will however still be valued by its owner mainly for the prestige it affords him among his fellows.It will still for the most part take shape in external forms of adornment or magnificence.As it develops into the culminating form of the oriental court, the element of display will remain the paramount consideration, to which even the sense-enjoyments of the owner will be secondary.
The effect of this early linking of property to personal prowess will be that in the general mind of man the possession of property is honorific.
It secures for its owner a presumption of personal greatness.Therefore, its possession must be kept in full and constant evidence, especially where inheritance destroys the direct presumption of the personal prowess of the actual owner.Hence the two essential features of the mode of living of the dominant class or caste, ostentatious waste and conspicuous leisure.
For thus the prestige of property is best enforced.Gorgeous palaces with luxurious grounds, magnificent banquets and entertainments, extravagant refinements of sensual luxury, adornments of fabrics, jewels and articles of laborious skill, magnificent tombs and other monuments -- the elaborate parade of waste, in order to fasten on the common imagination the sense of wonder and of admiration of the person who could afford so lavish a waste! The family of the rich man is chiefly valued as an instrument for making this display effective.His wife or wives must do no work, not even copy his parasitic activities; they must stand as open monuments of conspicuous leisure, their personal adornments, their retinues of servants, the entire elaborate ritual of their futile lives, must be devoted to showing how much their possessor can afford to caste.Such was the life of the aristocracy in olden and medieval days!
