Psychology of Animals. 209 



the results of experience accumulated in former gener- 

 ations (Lamarck, Spencer, Wundt, &c.); or it is the 

 outcome of congenital variations wrought upon in the 

 usual way by natural selection (Weismann, Ziegler, &c.). 



(4) There remains a fourth question practically un- 

 answerable at present: Excluding intelligence, by 

 hypothesis, what degree of consciousness attends the 

 performance of instinctive actions? Does an instinctive 

 action rise to the focus of consciousness, or is it, as it 

 were, on the margin of consciousness, or is it wholly sub- 

 conscious? As yet we are hardly warranted in having 

 more than mere opinions on the subject. 



As an illustration of what may be called distinctively 

 post-Darwinian work, we may take Prof. K. Groos's 

 study of the play of animals. Unless we choose to 

 regard nature as an illusion, we must admit that many 

 animals play, as really as children do. The simplest 

 forms of play are concerned with bodily movements, 

 and may be described as gambols and frolics ; also very 

 fundamental is the game of experiment in which the 

 animal without serious purpose tests things, itself, or 

 its fellows; and from these roots arise more complex 

 forms of play, the sham-hunt, the race, the sham-fight, 

 and so on. 



The first interpretation of the play of animals was 

 due to the poet Schiller, and was afterwards independ- 

 ently elaborated by Herbert Spencer. According to 

 this theory, play is an expression of superabundant 

 vitality, of overflowing energy, of irrepressible good 

 spirits. But this merely states one of the internal con- 

 ditions of play, and does not interpret the quite distinc- 

 tive forms of play observed in different kinds of animals. 

 Nor does it fit in well with the familiar sight of a dog 

 or a child turning in a moment from extreme weariness 

 to riotous play. Spencer eked out the theory by sug- 

 gesting that while surplus energy was the fundamental 

 condition, the precise forms of play were defined by 

 imitation. But although imitation is of enormous im- 

 portance in life, it does not explaim the forms of play; 

 we need only recall the play of animals, e.g. kittens, 

 which have been isolated in early life. 



(M523) O 



