PLAY AND INSTINCT. 79 



flock), is also useful in advancing intellectual develop- 

 ment, since selection favours young animals skilled in its 

 use. So we have here an hereditary instinct that is even 

 more especially adapted than that of play to render many 

 other instincts unnecessary, and thus open the way for 

 the development of intelligence along hereditary lines 

 that can be turned to account for the attainment of 

 qualities not inherited. Young animals, even some not 

 gregarious, have an irresistible impulse to imitate any ac- 

 tion of their parents, toward which their instinctive im- 

 pulse is very weak, and they learn in this way what would 

 never be developed in them individually without this 

 imitative impulse. The examples cited from Wallace 

 can be explained in this way. They do not argue against 

 instinct, but rather show that many instincts are becom- 

 ing rudimentary in the higher animals because they are 

 being supplanted by another instinct — imitative im- 

 pulse. And this substitution is of direct utility, for it 

 furthers the development of intelligence. This reminds 

 us of the teaching of Plato, that the ability to learn pre- 

 supposes " reminiscence " from a previous existence. By 

 means of imitation animals learn perfectly those things 

 for which they have imperfect hereditary predispositions. 

 We then reach the following conclusion in our play 

 inquiry — namely, that all youthful play is founded on 

 instinct. These instincts are not so perfectly developed, 

 not so stamped in all their details on the brain, as they 

 would have to be if their first expressions were to be 

 in serious acts. Therefore they appear in youth, and 

 must be perfected during that period by constant prac- 

 tice. At the same time, where physical movements are 

 concerned, the muscular system will also be developed 

 by this exercise suitably for subsequent serious work — a 

 result which would not be attained adequately with- 



