Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 15.djvu/193

 PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PLAY. 179 a,nd women lead them to practise in directions which are likely to be advantageous in after life." : We may compare with this P. Sourian, who says, the need of movement is especially great in the young animal, " because he has to try all the movements which it is necessary for him to make in later life ". 2 Applied to the human being such a doctrine involves the complete reversal of common-sense conceptions. As to the teleological aspect of the question I say nothing, but ask whether the essence of play, as we know it, consists in the fact that it is preparatory to the serious work of life. We know that in the case of human beings, it is just that need of preparation which makes us very seriously limit the time and energy which would be given to play, and though All work and no play Makes Jack a dull boy, so also No work and all play Sends Jack back to savagery. For the spontaneous playful life of the average child appears rather to reflect an adult past, and needs considerable prun- ing and cultivation before being adapted to adult life of to-day. The young animal trying all " the movements necessary in after life " is not the human boy. Is it the young of any animal? These early movements are said to be such as enable the animal to become proficient in some activity con- nected with the maintenance of his own life or that of his species. I am doubtful whether our knowledge of the precise differ- ences and similarities of the movements of the young and adult animal are always, or often, such as enable us to be sure that the playful activity of the young is more a preparation than a hindrance. A point just now keenly debated in educa- tional theory will illustrate this question. Very young chil- dren, when drawing spontaneously, do not flex the wrist, but draw in a way which may be roughly described as from the shoulder. By-and-by such of them as continue to draw spontaneously come to draw from the wrist, and the shoulder drawing gradually dies down, so much so that teachers who have to pass an examination in black-board drawing have to relearn it. But the bulk of the pupils in the schools will not require shoulder drawing when they grow up. Are we to assume that Nature's process must be the one possible pro- 1 Imtinct and Reason, p. 158. 2 " Le plaisir du mouvement," Revue Scientifique, xvii., p. 365.