PLAY 65 



Bodily reactions are individual and definite in nature. In each 

 play or imitation certain definite reactions are engaged and others are 

 not. Now, some reactions are acquired and others are inherited. 

 Therefore those cases of play and imitation in which acquired reac- 

 tions are involved are to that extent at least n on -instinctive. Thus 

 there is no general instinct of play or imitation ; there are, however, 

 individual or group cases of reaction some of which may be congenital 

 and thus instinctive. There is likewise no general instinct of self- 

 preservation, as usually stated, except in the sense that one name may 

 stand for a number of similar, congenital, concrete reactions. 



The error probably arises from the persistent habit of thinking 

 that instinct is a single function of the mind after the manner of the 

 older "faculty" psychology. The error may also arise from the fact 

 that in play there is often a more or less general influx of energy 

 (discharge of surplus-stored energy). This general discharge of sur- 

 plus energy is, however, a condition of play rather than the play 

 itself, and will be discharged along lines of definite activities, some of 

 which may be instinctive and some acquired. 



In a manner similar to the extension of our sense and motor 

 organs by extra-organic means the abbreviated instincts in the shape 

 of impulses are extended by the grafting on of acquired reactions, 

 which have come down to us by means of social heredity. Upon 

 further examination these acquired reactions are found to be pro- 

 foundly social and occupational in nature. They are usually the 

 survival of the fittest social reactions. Play is thus most intimately 

 connected with social evolution and is social and occupational to the 

 core. 1 



Play (frtivlties are either (1) adult, ancestral activities, modified 

 to suit the nature of yotith; or, [2) present-day oAult activities, 

 modified to suit the child mind; or, (5) the usual adult social 

 activities performed with pleasure and the spirit of mastery. 



(I). With progressive civilization ancestral adult experiences 

 tend to be perpetuated and sociaKzed in games and plays. In other 



'Gambling, waiting: for something to turn up, was, in its origin, social and occupational, hav- 

 ing been closely connected with divination and religious belief, for which see articles 

 by Gushing. 



5 



