xii THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



the real activities of life. This is very interesting and 

 suggestive. The sense of freedom is certainly promi- 

 nent in play. Whether it should be identified with the 

 sense of control which has been used by some writers as 

 a criterion (both in a negative and in a positive sense) 

 of the belief in realities already experienced, or again 

 with the freedom with which choice is pregnant, is more 

 questionable. Without caring to make a criticism of 

 Professor Groos' position, I may yet point out that in 

 our choices there are those which are free with a " don't- 

 have-to " freedom, and there are choices — and these are 

 the momentous ones, the ones to which freedom that 

 men value attaches — which are strenuous and real in the 

 extreme. Indeed, it seems paradoxical to liken the moral 

 life, with its sense of freedom, to a " game of play," and 

 to allow the hard-pressed sailor on the ethical sea to 

 rest on his oars behind a screen of Schein and plead, " I 

 sha'n't play." Seriously, this is what some other writer 

 might press on to ; and it comes out again in the author's 

 extremely interesting sections on art, of which I may 

 say a word in conclusion. 



Those who have read Professor Groos' former stimu- 

 lating book, Einleitung in die iEsthetik, will anticipate 

 the connection which he finds between play and art. 

 The art consciousness is a consciousness of an " inner 

 imitation," which is in so far " make-believe " as con- 

 trasted with reality. The " self-conscious illusion " of 

 the play consciousness is felt in extreme form in the 

 theatre, and it is found to be pleasurable even when we 

 play with painful situations, as in tragedy. In art the 

 desire to make an impression on others shows the " pleas- 

 ure of being cause." This intent to work on others 

 is a necessary ingredient in the art impulse. Groos 

 differs from K. Lange, who holds a similar view of the 



