THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ANIMAL PLAY. 327 



world and changes it into a better and higher one, so 

 in conscious play the whole sham occupation is trans- 

 formed by the feeling of freedom into something 

 higher, freer, finer, and more luminous, which we can not 

 confuse with the realities of life. The feeling of 

 freedom, then, is the subjective analogue to the objective 

 " destroyers of illusion/' Life is earnest, art is playful. 



I wish to append to this concluding chapter a brief 

 note. Should a question be raised as to the nature of 

 the artistic production whose germ is present in the 

 animals, the following may serve as an answer: First, 

 there is the commonest of all kinds of play, experi- 

 mentation, which, with its accompanying joy in the 

 possession of power, may be regarded as the principal 

 source of all kinds of art. We have also found, in the 

 excitement created by musical sounds, an approach to 

 human art. We recall the monkey that took great 

 pleasure in striking on hollow objects. From experi- 

 mentation in general three specialized forms of play 

 arise, analogous to the human arts, and their differ- 

 entiation leads us to the three most important prin- 

 ciples of the latter. They are courtship, imitation, and 

 the constructive arts, and the three principles involved 

 are those of self-exhibition, imitation, and decoration. 

 These principles are expressed in art as the personal, 

 the true, and the beautiful. There is no form of art 

 in which they are not present together, though one 

 usually dominates, while the others are subsidiary. 

 This is evident even in the animal world. The bird 

 that adorns his nest imitates the example of others, and 

 expresses his personality in the work. The bird that 

 mimics another often effects an improvement in his own 



song, and indulges in self -exhibition ; and the bird that 

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