Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/24

 10 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Certain forms of opportunity stand ready for his need. They have afforded relief in just such cases for centuries. If one is tired of eventless days, and weary of being an unnoted cipher in the great world ; if one wishes to become of momentary conse- quence at a bound; if he would share in an affair and hazard on its outcome, he may gamble. A thousand forms of play invite him to this course. If he would feel the keen throbs of expecta- tion ; if he would indulge in the anticipatory imaging of possible results; if he would give himself an interest in which he can fig- ure as a principal, he may play. Playing will give him a place among his fellows. They become interested in his " ordering." For a brief moment he will have occupation and an end. The wholly idle Romans experienced the same necessity and disposed of it in the same way. His well-groomed and sufficiently pro- vided brother of today feels the same lack, and does likewise. Can the half-idle man be utterly condemned for giving vent to that energy which he is forced to express, in ways which have appealed and still appeal because of their peculiar fitness in sup- plying a situation with a strong emotional feeling? It is not in a figure of speech alone that life is a game. Normal life is a game in that it calls forth the reserve forces of the entire organ- ism. It excites interest ; it proposes ends ; it organizes activi- ties ; it arouses hope ; it promises, and fulfills or fails. That life which calls forth but little of enthusiasm, which tends to be per- formed as a reflex action, which has little of the meaning which men prize, which is a constant tedium that life demands its counterpart, either in the normal or in the abnormal form. Its tedium must be broken by moments of excitement, its dullness by moments of stimulation. Possibilities, remote ends, expecta- tions, must be introduced, that the pent-up energy of life may flow out in hopes, or fears, or anticipations. Something must be initiated and carried out to its result by the self. And in every case in which freedom to originate has not yet been attained, the form which this extemporized task takes is a form supplied by society, and having upon it the hall-marks of many centuries of use. The evils which men do are social habits which, in spite of their blameworthiness, have still the redeeming virtue of being actions