Thorstein Veblen：The Theory of the Leisure Class, Excerpt 148

Learning, then, set out by being in some sense a by-product of the priestly vicarious leisure class; and, at least until a recent date, the higher learning has since remained in some sense a by-product or by-occupation of the priestly classes. As the body of systematized knowledge increased, there presently arose a distinction, traceable very far back in the history of education, between esoteric and exoteric knowledge, the former--so far as there is a substantial difference between the two--comprising such knowledge as is primarily of no economic or industrial effect, and the latter comprising chiefly knowledge of industrial processes and of natural phenomena which were habitually turned to account for the material purposes of life. This line of demarcation has in time become, at least in popular apprehension, the normal line between the higher learning and the lower.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833
Locator：Excerpt 148 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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