260 THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS 
the exercise of an instinct, but rather its actual working.” * 
But behaviour of a somewhat similar kind is seen in young 
animals before the time of mating has arrived, and is exempli- 
fied both in young and adults under circumstances different 
from those which distinguish what we may term the pairing 
situation. This, at any rate, may be regarded as a form of 
experimentation and practice in the arts of courtship. On 
different grounds does Professor Groos attempt to justify the 
inclusion of actual courtship under the head of play. For it 
may also, he thinks, even at the time of ‘its serious exercise, be 
to some extent artful, involving ‘“ make believe,” and there- 
fore playful in a somewhat different and more subtle sense ; 
but a brief reference to “make believe” we may reserve for 
our next section. 
There can be no question that special modes of behaviour 
often characterize the pairing situation, and that these not 
only exemplify an instinctive tendency, but from their con- 
stancy and relative definiteness constitute types of instinctive 
behaviour. They would form parts of any definition of a 
species founded not on structure but on behaviour. And if 
animals have feelings and emotions at all—if they are not 
Cartesian automata, which merely seem to be guided in their 
actions by consciousness—there can be but little question that 
the behaviour which characterizes the sexual situation is un- 
usually charged with feeling-tone, and accompanied by all 
those adjuncts which distinguish an emotional state, broadly 
considered. This matter is of no little importance in our 
interpretation of the phenomena described as courtship. Do 
the accompanying feeling-tone and the state of emotional 
exaltation influence the behaviour, or would it run a similar 
course in the absence of any such accompaniments? If, as we 
can scarcely doubt, the consciousness attending the situation 
does profoundly influence the behaviour, the further question 
arises—Is this influence mainly the result of the presence and 
behaviour of an individual of the oppositesex ? To this, again, 
we must answer that, so far as we can learn by observation, 
* “The Play of Animals,” Eng. trans., p. 229. 
