THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



has higher intellectual accompaniments. But it should 

 be remarked that the pleasure is greater when the 

 action involves movements that are agreeable to the 

 senses. Souriau finds an important source of pleasure 

 in movements that overcome resistance. In many move- 

 ment plays the earth's attraction is the opponent we 

 seek to conquer. The rapid horizontal movement, the 

 leap, the forward motion of a swing, are a mock victory 

 over the force of gravitation. This is a most pregnant 

 idea, and doubtless true essentially, though there is a 

 difficulty in the fact that the backward motion of the 

 swing, the leap into water, and the lightning speed of 

 coasting and skating, all of which depend on the un- 

 trammelled action of gravitation, are just as pleasurable. 

 The downward flight of birds, so often referred to in 

 this book, belongs to the same category. Still, this 

 does not disprove Souriau's idea, for, while weight is 

 not actually overcome in these exercises, there is freedom 

 from all the unpleasant effects of weight, such as fric- 

 tion, jarring, etc. All gliding, slipping, rocking, and 

 floating motions give us a peculiar and agreeable feel- 

 ing of freedom, whether they are contrary to gravi- 

 tation or not. We are freed from all the little jars 

 and rubs that usually accompany our motions, and are 

 primarily the effect of weight; hence these gliding mo- 

 tions are particularly agreeable to the senses and tend 

 greatly to increase the pleasurableness of play. The 

 same is true of agreeable sounds and colours when they 

 have place in a game. 



If pleasure in the possession of power appears as 

 the most important psychological foundation of play, 

 its highest intellectual expression, its idealization, as it 

 were, proves to be the assuming of a role or mock ac- 

 tivity in any form. Objectively all play is of this char- 



