290 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



This feeling is first a conscious presentation to our- 

 selves of our personality as it is emphasized by play — a 

 psychological fact which Souriau states in the words 

 " We are more alive, and glad that we are." But it is 

 more than this, it is also delight in the control we have 

 over our bodies and over external objects. Experi- 

 mentation in its simple as well as its more complicated 

 forms is, apart from its effect on physical development, 

 educative in that it helps in the formation of causal 

 associations. Knowledge of these is arrived at first by 

 means of voluntary movements, and afterward extended 

 in various directions,* and playful experimentation is a 

 valuable incentive to such movements. The young bear 

 that plays in the water, the dog that tears a paper into 

 scraps, the ape that delights in producing new and un- 

 couth sounds, the sparrow that exercises its voice, the 

 parrot that smashes his feeding trough, all experience 

 the pleasure in energetic activity, which is, at the same 

 time, joy in being able to accomplish something. 



But what is this feeling of joy, in its last analysis? 

 It is joy in success, in victory. Nietzsche has opposed 

 the " struggle for power " to Darwin's " struggle for 

 existence," and however contradictory it may seem to 

 identify the survival of the fittest, which is usually no 

 struggle at all, with a struggle for power, it is certain 

 that striving for supremacy is instinctive with all intelli- 

 gent animals. 



The first object to be mastered is the creature's own 

 body, and this is accomplished by means of experimen- 

 tal and movement plays. This achieved, the animal's 

 spirit of conquest is directed toward inanimate objects, 

 and very easily degenerates into destructiveness. But he 



* See Sully, The Human Mind, vol. i, pp. 264, 444 ; vol. ii, p. 224. 



