PLAY AND INSTINCT. 77 



is very probable that imitation is itself instinctive. 

 True, it is possible to conceive of the imitative im- 

 pulse as of individual origin. Wundt teaches that 

 every idea of movement presses to fulfil itself. (Many 

 psychologists seek to reduce even the will to such ideas.) 

 The notion of the movements seen in others is, of course, 

 included, and trhis is the imitative impulse.* But an 

 origin so entirely individual and even accidental can 

 hardly be attributed to an impulse of such enormous 

 power. Wundt refers to the impulses, too, as hereditary 

 phenomena, and, if I understand him aright, does not 

 exclude imitation, f Schneider thus expresses himself 

 on the subject: " Wundt is quite right in regarding ap- 

 perception of a movement idea, and the feelings con- 

 nected with it as a direct impulse to make the movement. 

 And the word idea is not used in a narrow sense, for 

 even the perception of a movement awakens this impulse, 

 and is the cause of many imitative movements." Schnei- 

 der is, how^ever, of the opinion that the development of 

 this "intimate causal connection" rests in both cases 

 on heredity (according to him, indeed, on the inheritance 

 of acquired characters), and advances as an explana- 

 tory proof of this the fact that the imitative impulse 

 is restricted to cases that are useful to the individual. 

 "When a young lion sees a fish swimming or a bird 

 flying he hardly feels a desire to swim or fly, while 

 the old lion's movements when he observes them arouse 

 the imitative impulse in him, because he is disposed 

 to the movements by heredity. This is a proof that 



* Wundt, Phys. Psych., fourth edition, p. 567 ff. The same 

 thought is brought out by James Mill in his Anal, of the Phenom. 

 of the Human Mind. 1829, vol. ii. chap. xxiv. 



f See Vorlesungen liber Menschen- und Thierseele, second edi- 

 tion, p. 433. [Eng. trans., pp. 388 ff.] 



