Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-10-17
PLAY AS A FORCE II TIE WORLD.
By susAx E. Bow.

fsri3 N fg@eilIPlay with nest zest
5@sM u " SIgive the test promise
lRpletI( ~ Eilof originality of mind
dM ~ SSs1 4e-and strength of char
49, -S97J4sEeacter. If we can make
EslS 55z55s,z7zs=s 5ssclear to ourselves the
- .-J-<1z1grounds of this feel
ing we shall be able to estimate the sig
nifcance OF play as a force in life
Mr.. Darwin is honored as thinker
Of great originality He has revoIu-
ii.''iel the sciences which deal with or
ga ic nature. Yet he was the most
patient of investigators. the most tire
less of students. This patient investi-
CATION and tireless study-haye they
ANYTHING to do with his originality?
By 4 large and increasing mum Der Of
thoughtful persons, Goethe is recog-
nized as the most original genius of
the modern world, and his Faust as
the most original OF all modern pro-
ducts of poetic art. Yet Goethe was
pre- eminently one who, like his hero,
had explored al provinces Of thought,
and enriched his mind with the treas
ures of all human experience.
He who keeps the gate of his mind
locked against the experiences and
thou .i,ts of other men remains an in
telec'ual savage lie who loads his
mind with alien thought, bat does not
digest it, is a pedant. He who receives
it, assimilates it, and transforms it by
making n new synthesis of its separate
elements is an original thinker. To
make syuthtsis of The accumulated
results of experience within definite
sphere is to tie original in that sphere.
To make a synthesiS OF the accumu-
lated results of experience in all spheres
is to attain the highest aud most per-
feet originality.
Keeping this definition OF orig inality
clearly before us, let US turn our atten-
tion to the child at play. We observe
that many OF his earliest games are
simple limitations. He is stretching
his own individuality SD that it may
include that of other persons and
things" and so completely does he
merge his being in that Of the beings
ne represents, that he is often resent
full when addressed in his proper per-
son. With sensitive children, more
over, these initiative plays often lead
to undue excitement. Thus little
girl. who was playing the part OF a
robin mother, and busily feeding im
aginary nestlings with imaginary
worms, became not only pale, but
breathless and palpitating, at the sug
gestion of an approaching cat. Nor
was her equinamity restored until she
had transformed the robin into a farm
er, who as she eagerly exclaimed, was
not afraid of cats.
AS simple imitation, play is the in
itial attempt to assimilate alien life
and experience But the child soon
tires of imitation. He is not satisfied
with "broken fragments from the
dream Of life" The fragments must
be pieced together, isolated imi-
tatious woven into connected whole.
Such a whole is a synthesis of expert
ence, and marks the ascent of thought
to originality.
The zest with which child plays
may, therefore, be said to measure the
strength of his recoil against external
excitement, and hence to indicate
whether he will be pasSvely modelled
- ,,to;.1 ,..,,,,,,-.,, q - ,,;toIir ,cr;p,:t,, -
and transubstantiate all foreign ele
ments into the forming fiber of his
own thought" Moreover, children of
inert minds may be made more sus-
ceptible and more active by being en-
couraged to play.
In this connection it may not be I'M
important to remark that, by watching
the plays of children, we may discover
what external suggestions are working
most powerfully upon tkeir minds.
Thus little girl, the only daughter of
widower, who had been an especially
fond and tender mother to large
family of dolls, was observed suddenly
to change her attitude towards them.
She beat them, took away all their nice
dresses and sent them supperless to
bed. At the same time she herself be-
came silent, moping and irritable.
When demonstrated with for cruelty
towards her children, she said bitterly:
II am not their mother, am their
s.epmothsr" a few skilful questions
brought to light the fact that careless
hints of her fathers possible marriage
had affected an imagination probably
somewhat warped by the stories of
cruel stepmothers which abound in our