798 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



itself in terms of muscular activity, and tliat power of tlie will in its 

 origin bears a relation to firmness of muscle, to power of muscular 

 contraction. 



In passing rapidly over these large subjects, I am aware that I 

 can do nothing more than to suggest the larger outlines upon which 

 we must work for years before securing satisfaction and final results. 

 My immediate attempt is to put in these terms of physical training 

 the conclusions and inferences that the modern psychology has al- 

 ready laid at our doors. 



Your attention is particularly called to my next subject. I be- 

 lieve that we shall find in the play instinct a clew that shall lead us 

 to a rational plan of physical education — a plan that will fit in as an 

 integral part of the present-day educational movement. 



6. The play instinct. By the play instinct, I mean that which 

 prompts the young child or animal to its chief activities for the first 

 part of its active life, as well as to those activities to which adults 

 turn for recreation. Play is associated in the child's mind with fun, 

 and with independent activities. The more the play is controlled and 

 demanded of the child, the less is it play and the more is it work. 

 It is the child's self -activity ; it is the free operation of his own will 

 or fancy; it may demand all the muscular and mental qualities of 

 work, but it is not work so long as the child is free. The reactions of 

 the individual vary much in free activity from what they do in 

 enforced activity. My father used to remark upon the quick fatigue 

 that would overtake me when laboring with a hoe, and the endurance 

 that I had when operating with a baseball bat. This problem has 

 been too much for most parents. The voluntary control of the will 

 in the one case is an entirely different matter from the free play of 

 both will and attention in the other. As soon as activities are done 

 for profit they are no longer play, although they may be enjoyable. 

 When an adult exercises for health, he is not playing unless there is 

 the spontaneous enjoyment in it that is characteristic of play, and 

 which makes it appear worth while for its own sake. 



Let us ask first in regard to the facts of play. What are the plays 

 of childhood and youth? Do they form a logical and coherent whole? 

 Is there any orderly progression? If so, whence do they start, and 

 to what do they lead? The facts which I shall give under these 

 heads are drawn, first, from an observation of my own five children; 

 second, from my own experience as a boy; third, from observation 

 of the children of Springfield; fourth, from a study of the plays of 

 English preparatory schools; fifth, from an examination of boys' 

 books; sixth, reports of child study, in regard to infant activity. 



For convenience, I shall divide the life of the child into periods. 

 Hard-and-fast divisions can not be made, not only because they do 



