6o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



stress and work. That it is producing anything remarkable, except in 

 invention and the mechanic arts, is doubtful. The really great things 

 of the world have been produced not with great effort, but with great 

 ease. The magnificent productions of the age of Pericles in architecture, 

 sculpture, painting and literature seem to have been more like the over- 

 flowing of a full vessel than like the laborious achievements of hard 

 work. But the present age is the age of great effort, the age of work, 

 and hence our growing demand for more relaxation and rest. 



The educational application of this theory of play presents less diffi- 

 culties than the older theories. It is not necessary that the child should 

 live through and live out any series of savage stages. It is merely neces- 

 sary that he should be kept active with the mental and physical equip- 

 ment that he has, that work should not be too early imposed upon him 

 and that his plays should be so organized and supervised that, while re- 

 taining the elementary form of his instinctive responses, they may be 

 physically, morally and socially harmless. For instance, a boy, if he is 

 a boy, must throw. It is just a question of whether he shall throw 

 stones at a cat, at a street car, at little children or whether he shall 

 throw a curved ball to the catcher. The latter is harmless, the former 

 dangerous. Again, a boy's instinct of rivalry is very strong. He must 

 do something daring, get ahead of some one, as those of his ancestors 

 who survived did before him. If a proper playground is provided, all 

 these things may be done without injury to society. Otherwise his in- 

 stinct is expended in an effort " to steal on Casey's beat and get away 

 with it." Again, at a certain age the dancing instinct is developed and 

 the children must now be taught the graceful and healthful folk dances. 



In our modern cities supervised play has become necessary for social 

 order, for the reason that the old conditions of spontaneous, healthful 

 play have been taken away. Says Luther Burbank quoted by Geo. E. 

 Johnson : 



Every child should have mud-pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs, 

 mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, 

 brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchueks, bats, bees, butterflies, various ani- 

 mals to pet, hay fields, pine cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and 

 hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the 

 best part of his education. 



As regards adults, the social applications of the theory are equally 

 obvious. There must be large periods of relaxation from the high ten- 

 sion life of to-day. If they are not provided in the form of healthful 

 and harmless sports, there will be irritability, abnormal fatigue and anti- 

 social outbreaks. There will be tango-dancing crazes and auction- 

 bridge crazes and there will be ever-increasing resort to the temporary 

 harmonizing effect of alcohol, tobacco and coffee. 



Even in the life of the family the harmonizing influence of games 



