154 SAVAGE SURVIVALS 



years, when tlie liungiy mouths and fleet limbs of 

 the wolves are on its track. And it is very im- 

 portant for it to be very diligent in its studies, 

 and learn well the lessons of fleetness and far- 

 leaping. 



But the domesticated goat is a lowlander. It 

 will probably never see a mountain nor a wolf. 

 But the children of these lowlanders continue to 

 practice in their play for the wild mountain life 

 gone by, just as the children of higher men con- 

 tinue to prepare themselves in their plays for the 

 vanished life of the savage. 



These savage forms of play are beneficial indi- 

 rectly in building up the body and in developing 

 ingenuity and shrewdness. But the reason wdiy 

 w^e use in our plays the forms of running and 

 fighting instead of computing and co-operating — 

 the reason why our plays are arranged to give us 

 practice in downing people instead of helping them 

 up — is because the play instinct has never been 

 modernized. 



The play instinct in boys takes a different form 

 from what it does in girls, for the same reason 

 that the play-forms of goats and wolves are dif- 

 ferent. They practice for different ends. A boy 

 likes to ride a stick-horse and play ball and fight ; 

 a girl likes her dolls and her play-houses. 



2. The Imitative Instinct. 



This is the instinct which causes us to be in- 

 clined to do as others do — the urge to copy others 



