EFTA01133028.pdf

facility in the tactics of subservience — a trained conf _ orm-_ a ity to the canons of effectual and conspicuous subservi_ t ence. Even to-day it is this aptitude and acquired skill f in the formal manifestation of the servile relation that i constitutes the chief element of utility in our highly paid servants, as well as one of the chief ornaments of the well-bred housewife. The first requisite of a good servant is that he should conspicuously know his place. It is not enough that he knows how to effect certain desired mechanical results; he must, above all, know how to effect these results in due form. Domestic service might be said to be a spiritual rather than a mechanical function. Gradually there grows up an elaborate system of good form, specifically reg- ulating the manner in which this vicarious leisure of the servant class is to be performed. Any departure from these canons of form is to be deprecated, not so much because it evinces a shortcoming in mechanical effici- ency, or even that it shows an absence of the servile attitude and temperament, but because, in the last analy- sis, it shows the absence of special training. Special train- ing in personal service costs time and effort, and where it is obviously present in a high degree, it argues that the servant who possesses it, neither is nor has been habitually engaged in any productive occupation. It is prim a facie evid ence of a vica rious leisu re exte ndin g far back in the past . So that train ed serv ice has utility, not only as gratifying the master's instinctive liking for good and skilf ul workma nshi p and his prop ensi ty for cons picu - lives are subs ervie nt ous dominance over those whose EFTA01133028