PSYCHICAL ASPECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 803 



The theory itself appears to be at variance with our modern thought 

 of psychology. (4) There is a special group of plays, particularly 

 among adults, that Professor James claims as being a development of 

 the aesthetic feelings. They consist of ceremony, of the dance, of 

 gorgeous rites and festivities. It is the individual's share in the col- 

 lective life, as James puts it. We find these both in animals and 

 men, but they are hardly the side of play that we are discussing. (5) 

 Different writers on psychology, particularly James, have advanced 

 the idea that plays are genetic. We are familiar with the thought 

 that the body, in reaching the adult stage, must briefly rehearse the 

 history of the race. The body starts from a single cell, and with 

 greater or less faithfulness travels the road to adult life that the race 

 has traveled. I do not know of any scheme of physical training that 

 has been deliberately founded upon this conception of the genetic 

 psychology. It appears to be not only true that the body rehearses 

 the life of the race; it appears to be true that the mind must do so 

 also, and that the plays of children are the rehearsal of the activities 

 of the race during forgotten ages — not necessarily the selfsame activi- 

 ties, but activities involving the same bodily and mental qualities. 

 Putting it exactly, play is the ontogenetic rehearsal of the phylo- 

 genetic series. It could not be true that our savage ancestors should 

 have depended for their livelihood upon such a game as " one old 

 cat," that boys play during later childhood, but it is true that their 

 lives depended upon the quick-sense judgments, the ability to strike 

 with rapidity and vigor, the accurate muscular co-ordinations, the 

 spirit of individualistic competition that characterizes the child play 

 during this period. Many of the plays of adolescence, on the other 

 hand, certainly represent the identical occupations of our far-removed 

 ancestors, and the play of adult life when fulfilling most perfectly 

 the conditions of play, expresses itself in these elementary forms: 

 hunting, fishing, sailing, swimming, mountain-climbing, and the like. 



Why should there be fun in connection with play? We are 

 accustomed to associate pleasure, partly at least, with the discharge 

 of the highest function of which the individual is then capable. I 

 believe that upon this ground the fun of play can be explained. It 

 represents the deeply founded functions of the race. During play 

 the child experiences the deep satisfaction of living through and satis- 

 fying these elemental, racial functions. 



Plays are progressive, and that which is the greatest fun at one 

 period is not the greatest fun at another, because the life itself is 

 progressive, and, while play is interesting to adults, normally devel- 

 oped individuals should find their chief enjoyment not in play, but in 

 the discharge of the higher functions of present-day living. Kecrea- 

 tion will be found by reverting to the more perfectly organized cen- 



