Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/607

Rh is seen. The friction sometimes exhibited among its members, in some cases taking the extreme form of nagging, wrangling and quarreling, is no doubt due in large part to the fatigue of the higher brain centers. In such cases it will often be found that participation in some simple game, particularly an outdoor game, such as golf, tennis or even quoits, will completely relieve the situation, bringing sympathy, harmony and peace. In society, the larger family, the same effect must follow upon the larger participation in healthful sports. It is sometimes a matter of surprise to us in periods of national prosperity when wages are good and work obtainable, that unrest increases, together with crime and insanity. It may be because the high tension with its consequent fatigue is not relieved. What is needed is less work and worry and more healthful relaxation. Worry is a good example of the high-tension life that is a part of our civilization. Worry is only an excessive form of prevision. It is well enough for preachers to tell us not to worry, but worry is precisely that form of behavior upon which civilization depends, namely, solicitude and care for the future. As a nation we are just beginning to worry, for instance, about the depletion of our forests and soil, and it is well that we are doing so. But sometimes we become excessively solicitous about the future, whether it be about the rent or the winter's supply of coal or our future health or the health and morality of our children, and this is what is usually spoken of as worry. It is very wearing, for the reason that it brings constant strain upon delicate and recently developed brain centers and makes relaxation imperative.

If we have correctly described the theory of play and the psychology of relaxation and their relations to the conditions of our modern life, it will be evident at once that the need will not be supplied merely by providing more playgrounds for children and more holidays and sports for grown-ups, vital as these are. The difficulty goes deeper and calls for emphasis of still other forms of relaxation than play and sport. There are many of these, such, for instance, as music, which is one of the best, and rhythmic dancing, which, being very ancient racially, is a form of relaxation of unsurpassed value. An ever-ready and convenient form of relaxation is the modern novel, in which the attention is sustained objectively as in the chase or the drama, but its value as relaxation is greatly less than in the old and social story telling. Society in all its forms is a healthful means of relaxation. All valuable games and sports are social and the mere mingling with our fellows lowers the mental stress and tension. Primitive man was wholly social and survived only in cooperative groups. The reversionary character of crowd behavior has been made well known to us.

Religion may be mentioned finally as a mode of relaxation of the highest value. Religion is a letting go the stress and tension of the