64 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



by the multiplicity of his faculties. He does not need 

 to use all his powers in the fight for his daily bread. 

 One man gains his livelihood by manual labour — he 

 is a mason, an iron-worker, or an acrobat ; another 

 makes it by mental work — he may be a scholar or a poet. 

 In others there is an alternation of the two kinds of 

 activity, but one element always rests and accumulates 

 energy ; and as the struggle for maintenance does not 

 require this energy, a man turns to sham-work for an 

 outlet for it. He will imitate real work : he will play. ^ 



This manysidedness of faculties in the struggle for 

 existence distinguishes all the higher animals from the 

 lower. The energy of the lower animals is entirely 

 absorbed in the search for food, the avoidance of 

 enemies, and the preparations for reproduction. It is 

 otherwise with the bird and the mammal. A successful 

 raid in the morning will provide a family of foxes with 

 food for the whole day, and they laugh at danger in 

 front of their shelter. The warm sun falls on the furry 

 coats of the sated animals ; the rest has strengthened 

 their limbs ; and the body, with no serious demands on 

 it, will, in the absence of real employment, make a 

 pretence of it.* Instead of his real victim, the fox runs 

 after his brothers and sisters. He plays. 



But is it really excess of energy that impels the young 



1 This theory, that the essence of play is excess of energy, was first 

 expounded by Schiller in his letters "On the aesthetic education of 

 man." I regret that I have not space to reproduce the beautiful 

 language of the poet. It is marvellous how many philosophical problems 

 — problems that seem to be quite modern — Schiller has treated with 

 felicity. Herbert Spencer has expanded his ideas on play. 



^ Spencer joined this idea of pretence or imitation to Schiller's 

 theory of play. 



