THE PSYCHOLOGY OP ANIMAL PLAY. 321 



play. We are compelled, for sham occupation is re- 

 lated to the hypnotic condition in that it treats mere 

 appearance as if it were reality. The make-believe I fol- 

 lows all the turns of playful activity, yielding obedient 

 service to the intellectual and emotional stimuli which 

 they evolve, and yet this compulsion is not like that 

 which oppresses us in actual experience, for the fact 

 is always present to our consciousness that we are the 

 creators of this world of appearances. " The reality 

 of things," says Schiller, " is inherent in them, the ap- 

 pearance of things is man's affair, and the state of 

 mind that is nourished by appearance takes more pleas- 

 ure in its own activity than in anything that it re- 

 ceives." * We are compelled, because we are under the 

 power of an illusion, and we are free because we produce 

 the illusion voluntarily. Indeed, it may safely be said 

 that we never feel so free as when we are playing. 



Apart from all transcendental considerations, free ac- 

 tivity, regarded from a psychological standpoint, depends 

 on our ability to do just what we wish to do, and on 

 no other ground; this is the positive side, and the nega- 

 tive side is that we have the conviction that we can ab- 

 stain from the act at any moment that pleases us. The 

 popular idea is correct in calling a man free when he 

 does and leaves undone what he chooses, for the feeling 

 of being at liberty consists in regarding ourselves as 

 the arbiters of our own destiny. Whatever error the 

 theoretical metaphysician may think it necessary to 

 combat in this statement, it remains a psychological 

 fact that we do have such a feeling, and that it is of 

 incalculable practical significance. Let us see in what 

 it consists. We feel ourselves to be absolute causes — 



* Aesth. Erziehung, twenty-sixth letter. 



