380 Appendix C 



it enables the young animal to exercise himself beforehand in 

 the strenuous and necessary functions of its life and so to be 

 ready for their onset ; and second, it enables the animal by a 

 general instinct to do many things in a playful way, and so to 

 learn for itself much that would otherwise have to be inherited 

 in the form of special instincts ; this puts a premium on intelli- 

 gence, which thus comes to replace instinct (pp. 65 f,). Either of 

 these utilities, Professor Groos thinks, would insure and justify 

 the play instinct ; so important are they that he suggests that 

 the real meaning of infancy is that there may be time for play.^ 



It is especially in connection with this latter function of play 

 that the instinct to imitate comes in to aid it. Imitation is a 

 real instinct, but it is not always playful ; play is a real instinct, 

 but it is not always imitative. Professor Groos does not suggest, 

 I think, closer relations between these two instincts. There is 

 likely, however, to be a great deal of imitation in play, since 

 the occasion on which a particular play instinct develops is 

 often that which also develops the imitative tendency as well, 

 i.e.^ the actual sight or hearing of the acts and sounds of other 

 animals. Moreover, the acquisition of a muscular or vocal 

 action through imitation makes it possible to repeat the same 

 action afterwards in play. 



It is only a step, therefore, to find that imitation, as an instinct, 

 has to have ascribed to it, in a measure, the same race utility 

 as play — that of going before the intelligence and preparing 

 the way for it, by rendering a great number of specialized 

 instincts unnecessary. It is interesting to contrast this view 

 with that which the present writer has recently developed 

 in the pages of Science (see Chap. V., above), i.e., the view 

 that imitation supplements inadequate congenital variations 

 in the direction of an instinct, and so, by keeping the creature 

 alive, sets the trend of further variations in the same direction 

 until the instinct is fully organized and congenital. If both 



1 " Die Thiere spielen nicht weil sie jung sind, sondern sie haben eine 

 Jugend, weil sie spielen miissen " (p. 68). Other capital utilities which might 

 be added are (i) the exercise of the intelligence itself and (2) direct social 

 utility as such. 



