1264 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



incalculable. When a child sees the mistress carefully hiding away 

 at the end of the excursion picnic every scrap of paper, although 

 she never utters a word, the lesson sinks in and remains unforget- 

 table. We remember, long ago, going with a master in Zoology to a 

 seashore, a very favourite spot, and seeing him replace the 

 flat stones which we had turned over to see the treasures beneath. 

 He knew that other students were coming next year, and if 

 the stones were not replaced there would be a poor gathering. 

 Not a word was said, but on the next excursion we did not forget 

 to replace our upturned flat stones. When a child sees the teacher 

 gently replace in the earth, without saying anything, the sundew 

 which the excited young botanist had uprooted, a lesson is learned 

 that is never forgotten. The child is extraordinarily impressionable, 

 as much indirectly as directl}^ 



Before birth, for some strange reason, there is an activation ol 

 sex hormones in the child; but for many years after birth there 

 should be practically none; and the point here is, of course, that 

 well-meaning people should be instructed to refrain from certain 

 kinds of fondlings which are apt to activate and awaken an 

 activity which during the whole of this childhood period should be 

 absolutely quiescent. It only needs to be suggested, surely, that 

 there are certain kinds of affectionafeness which, from their nature, 

 are reprehensible and may lead to trouble in after-life. 



Then, above all, during this period, there is the function of Play, 

 the importance of which has been emphasised so much by biologists. 

 The importance of play is fundamental: not only is it the safety 

 valve for the overflowing motor energies, but it affords free elbow 

 room for individualities, originalities, new departures which, if 

 they do not find outlet in play, are apt to express themselves 

 inconveniently later on. It is a time when without responsibilities 

 some really useful originality may be expressed. Thirdly, play is 

 the young form of work. In all playing animals the play bears 

 definite relation to the mode of life which is practised afterwards. 

 The kitten plays at hunting, because the kitten is a carnivore; and 

 the lambs of the field play at King of the Castle, which appears to 

 bear some relation to the clambering of the wild sheep. Play is the 

 young form of work, an unconscious indispensable apprenticeship 

 to future duties; for he will work well who plays well. Fourthly, the 

 ethical valua of play is that the child learns in play better than by 

 any other experience what "playing the game" means — learns the 

 valuable lesson of self-subordination— the lesson of give and take. 

 So whether one thinks of play as a safety valve or as elbow rqom 

 for individualities, or as the apprenticeship to work, or as an oppor- 

 tunity for learning to "pla}^ the game", it is invaluable. All work 

 and no play makes Jack not only a dull boy but a bad boy. 



Adolescence. — This chapter raises an important series of 



