Aristocracy has three successive ages: the age of superiorities, the age of privileges, the age of vanities. Originating in the first, it degenerates in the second and becomes extinct in the third.

Chateaubriand sketches a cyclical “life history” of aristocratic orders. In the first phase, an elite justifies itself by real excellence—military prowess, leadership, learning, or public service (“superiorities”). Over time, those merits harden into inherited legal and social advantages (“privileges”), increasingly detached from the original achievements. In the final stage, the elite becomes preoccupied with display, etiquette, and self-regard (“vanities”), losing both usefulness and legitimacy. The implied lesson is political as well as moral: when a ruling class ceases to renew its claim through genuine contribution, it invites resentment and eventually collapse or irrelevance.