ady said and in the end of our quotation from
Herbert Spencer, it will be evident that purposeful games rather than
exercises are to be commended. There is indeed no comparison for a
moment possible between Nature's method of exercise, which is obtained
through play, and the ridiculous and empty parodies of it which men
invent. The truth is that Nature is aiming at one thing, and man at
another. Man's aim, for reasons already exploded, is the acquirement of
strength; Nature's is the acquirement of skill. It is really nervous
development that Nature is interested in when she appears to be
persuading the young thing to exercise its muscles. Man notices only the
muscular contractions involved, thinks he can improve upon Nature, and
invents absurdities like dumb-bells.

It is the nervous system by which we human beings live. Our voluntary
muscles are agents of the will, agents of purpose; and while strength is
a trifle, skill is always everything. We know now that it is impossible
to carry out any human purpose by the contraction of one muscle or even
one group of muscles. Even when we merely bend the arm we are doing
things with the muscles which extend it, and when we raise it sideways
we are modifying the whole trunk in order to preserve the balance. We
have only to watch the clumsiness of an infant or a small child to
realize how much skill the nervous system has to acquire. This skill may
be mainly expressed as co-ordination, the balanced use of many muscles
for a purpose and, as a rule, their co-ordinated use with one of the
senses, more especially vision, but also touch and hearing.

This is the first of the physiological reasons why games and play of all
sorts are so incomparably superior to the use of dumb-bells and
developers, where movement and increase of muscular strength are made
ends in themselves; whereas in play we are making relations with the
outside world, responding to stimuli, educating our nerve muscular
apparatus as an instrument of human purpose.

It is in part true to suppose that the play of children expresses an
overflow of superfluous energy, but a still deeper and much more
important conception of play is that which recognizes in it Nature's
method of nervous development, the attainment of control and
co-ordination, the capacity of quick and accurate response to
circumstances and obedience to the will. Compare, for instance, the girl
who has played games, avoiding danger as she crosses the ro