hinted at in so brief a sketch. Any one charged with the
education or training of a child should know the results of modern
study in these particulars.

The fullest and most practical correlation of our knowledge of the
child's evolution to the particular subject of play that has yet been
presented is that of Mr. George E. Johnson, Superintendent of
Playgrounds in Pittsburgh, and formerly Superintendent of Schools in
Andover, Mass., in _Education by Plays and Games_. The wonderful
studies in the psychology of play by Karl Groos (_The Play of Animals_
and _The Play of Man_), and the chapter by Professor William James on
_Instinct_, show how play activities are expressions of great basic
instincts that are among the strongest threads in the warp and woof of
character--instincts that should have opportunity to grow and
strengthen by exercise, as in play and games. We have come to realize
that play, in games and other forms, is nature's own way of developing
and training power. As Groos impressively says, "We do not play
because we are young; we have a period of youth so that we may play."

The entire psychology of play bears directly on the subject of games.
Indeed, although the study of games in their various aspects is of
comparatively recent date, the bibliography bearing on the subject,
historic, scientific, psychologic, and educational, is enormous and
demands a distinct scholarship of its own.

[Sidenote: Age classification]

It is highly desirable that a teacher should know the significance of
certain manifestations in a child's play interests. If they should not
appear in due time, they should be encouraged, just as attention is
given to the hygiene of a child who is under weight for his age. But
it should not be inferred that any hard and fast age limits may be set
for the use of different plays and games. To assign such limits would
be a wholly artificial procedure, and yet is one toward which there is
sometimes too strong a tendency. A certain game cannot be prescribed
for a certain age as one would diagnose and prescribe for a malady.
Nothing in the life of either child or adult is more elastic than his
play interests. Play would not be play were this otherwise. The
caprice of mood and circumstance is of the very soul of play in any of
its forms.

The experience of the writer has been chiefly away from dogmatic
limitations in the use of games. Very young players and adults alike
may find the greatest plea