THE SURPLUS ENERGY THEORY OF PLAY. 9 



Ethik, in which he is evidently influenced by Spencer, 

 sets forth this idea perhaps more clearly. " Play," he 

 says there, "is the child of work. There is no kind 

 of play that does not find its prototype in some form 

 of serious activity which naturally precedes it." * 



It is, of course, undeniable that many plays originate 

 in such imitation, but a glance over the passages cited 

 above is sufficient to show that the most important and 

 elementary kinds of play can be attributed neither to 

 imitative repetition of the individual's former acts, nor 

 to imitation of the performances of others. 



If, then, Spencer's theory becomes so far untenable 

 through the deviation of its imitative principle from 

 Schiller's, our next step is evidently to inquire whether 

 Schiller's idea alone would be satisfactory. Can it be 

 admitted that accumulated superabundance of energy 

 alone suffices to explain all the phenomena of play in 

 animals? In order to get at the full meaning of this 

 conception we must consider the psychological aspect 

 of the surplus energy theory, as well as its merely physi- 

 ological side. No doubt superabundant physical activity 

 may often be considered as the psychological expres- 

 sion of exuberant spirits. This comes very near the 

 idea that the play of animals and human beings origi- 

 nates in such physically conditioned dispositions; it is 

 only necessary to instance the great influence good 

 weather and comfortable temperature have on animals 

 and men. Karl Miiller notices this in an article on The 

 Mental Life of Higher Animals in connection with the 

 great influence the weather has on bird-songs, and says 

 further: " Does this belong to the sexual instinct? Or 

 has not rather the sense of comfort and well-being the 



* Ethik, 1886, p. 145. 



