THE SURPLUS ENERGY THEORY OF PLAY. 3 



Spencer gives a short account of his theory in the 

 last chapter of the Principles of Psychology, which 

 treats of the aesthetic feelings. " Many years ago," says 

 he (§ 533), " I met with a quotation from a German 

 author to the effect that the aesthetic sentiments origi- 

 nate from the play impulse. I do not remember the 

 name of the author, and if any reasons were given for 

 this statement, or any inferences drawn from it, I can 

 not recall them. But the statement itself has remained 

 with me, as being one which, if not literally true, is yet 

 the adumbration of a truth." It is now well known to 

 many readers of Spencer from what German work was 

 derived this citation which made such a lasting impres- 

 sion on him. Many have publicly expressed themselves 

 on the subject, as Sully, Grant Allen,* and myself in 

 my Einleitung in die iEsthetik.f The doctrine of the 

 origination of the aesthetic feelings from play impulses 

 is the cardinal point of Schiller's theory of the beautiful 

 as it is revealed to us in these letters on aesthetic educa- 

 tion. Schiller himself, not to speak of Kant, may have 

 been influenced by Home, and so the idea merely found 

 its way back to England when he in turn influenced 

 Spencer. So far this indebtedness of Spencer to Schiller 

 is pretty generally recognised in professional circles. 

 But it is quite otherwise with the passage just quoted; 

 it occurs in a part of the ^Esthetics letters, compara- 

 tively unfamiliar, and therefore seemingly overlooked 

 by most readers. " The theory " (of play impulse), says 

 Wallaschek, " remained unheeded, though committed to 

 writing nearly a century ago. Put, in our times, into 



* See R. Wallaschek, On the Origin of Music, Mind, vol. xvi 

 (1891), p. 376. 

 t P. 176. 



