PLAY, IMITATIVENESS, AND CURIOSITY 385 



mental * acquirements ' to make ; his actions are all entirely 

 business-like. It is true that gnats and other insects indulge at 

 certain seasons in dances which appear to us sportive ; but there 

 is every reason to believe that they are impelled, not by the 

 playing, but by the sexual instinct. On the other hand, young 

 ants are said to be sportive. The young of the higher animals 

 are playful in proportion to the extent to which their bodies and 

 minds are capable of development under the stimulus of use. In 

 each instance the sport is exactly adapted to fit the individual for 

 the future business of life. The little girl ' naturally ' turns to her 

 doll, which she nurses as she will her baby. The play of the boy 

 as naturally involves contests which foreshadow the grimmer 

 struggles of adult life. As he grows older the character of his 

 sport changes. More and more it becomes an affair of wit and 

 dexterity, an appeal to wider experience, and a means of adding to 

 it. When the girl's play with her doll and the sports of the little 

 boy have served their purpose and ceased to be useful, they cease 

 also to excite interest. Compare the ambush and pounce of the 

 kitten, the ardent chase and overthrowing of the puppy, and the 

 climbing proclivities of the monkey and the kid. When full 

 physical and mental development is attained, the desire for sport 

 wanes. It lingers longest in the most intelligent animals, those 

 whose memories are the most capacious, who are most capable of 

 profiting from experience. Little remains of the instinct in the 

 adult cat or horse ; the dog retains it longer ; while man, who is 

 capable of learning even in old age, retains it in some measure to 

 the end. Hence, for example, his pleasure in billiards and cards. 



639. Imitativeness and curiosity are instincts which impel the 

 young individual to store his mind with useful traits. Like 

 sportiveness, they are developed in every species in proportion to 

 the power of making mental acquirements, and they persist in the 

 individual only as long as they are useful. Imitativeness impels 

 him to copy his progenitors, and so make for himself those 

 acquirements which enabled them to exist and rear offspring in 

 their world. The kitten, the puppy, and the monkey may be 

 seen observing with interest and subsequently imitating their 

 elders. The most imitative of all living beings is a child, who 

 from the time he copies his elders in walking, speaking, and 

 manipulative dexterity, to the time when he acquires his ultimate 

 political and religious notions, is constantly under the influence of 

 this instinct. A large part of a little child's sport consists in pre- 

 tending to be such and such a person, or to do such and such a 

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