THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELAXATION 599 



parts or centers of the brain. In sleep these higher mental processes 

 enjoy almost complete suspension. But the exercise of these powers 

 during the long hours of our waking day would result in speedy col- 

 lapse. It is clear therefore that our daily activity must be made up 

 quite largely of responses of the simpler type, which shall give exer- 

 cise to our muscles and sense organs and invoke older and more elemen- 

 tary forms of psychosis, and at the same time allow the higher ones to 

 rest. Such is relaxation in all its forms and of such consists almost 

 wholly the life of the child. For the brain centers associated with the 

 above-mentioned forms of mental activity are undeveloped in the child 

 as they are in primitive man, so that we may say with considerable 

 truth not that the child ought not to work, but that he can not work. 



So we understand why adult sport resembles the activities of 

 primitive man. The older, the more basal, the more primitive, so to 

 speak, the brain centers used in our hours of relaxation, the more com- 

 plete our rest and enjoyment. Just in proportion as the sport is primi- 

 tive, so much greater is the sweet peace which it seems to bring to the 

 troubled soul, simply because it involves more primitive brain tracts 

 and affords greater release from the strenuous life. So while we find 

 one hundred and fifty spectators at an inter-collegiate debate, we find 

 a thousand at an automobile race, five thousand at a horse-race, twenty 

 thousand at a great baseball game, fifty thousand at a great football 

 game and 385,000 at a gladiatorial show. The nervous tracts which 

 function in such activities as hunting and fishing and swimming and 

 boating and camping and in football and baseball and golf and polo, 

 in horse-racing and bull-fighting, are deep worn, pervious and easy. 

 During countless centuries the nerve currents have flowed through 

 these channels. Witnessing these rude contests, pictures of former 

 ages, or taking part in these deep-seated, instinctive actions brings 

 sweet rest and refreshment. " The racially old is seized by the individ- 

 ual with ease and joy." 



The game of golf has a peculiar restorative power surpassing all 

 medical or other therapeutic arts. We may be physically and mentally 

 weary from a morning's work. Despite the strenuous physical exertion 

 of an afternoon at golf, our fatigue is lessened, not increased. Fresh 

 air does not explain it. It is a return to the primitive outdoor life. 

 We stride over hill and through ravine; we stumble into ditches; we 

 carry a club and strike viciously at the ball ; we follow the ball with the 

 eye and search for it in the grass as our forefathers searched for their 

 arrows and missiles; we use our legs and our arms; we let the nerve 

 currents course through the more ancient channels; we revel uncon- 

 sciously in latent memories and old race habits and come back to our 

 work rested, renewed and refreshed. 



But you may say golf and bowling and baseball and prize-fight- 



