s to avoid a indolent habit
of body, and this," he added, "can he acquired by various means, among
others by play, which ought to be neither illiberal, nor laborious, or
lazy."

[Sidenote: Luther]

Luther rebukes those who despise the plays of children and says
that Solomon did not prohibit scholars from play at the proper time.
Fenelon, Locke, Schiller, and Richter all admit the deep significance
of this universal instinct of youth.

Preyer, speaking not as a philosopher or educator, but as a scientist,
mentions "the new kinds of pleasurable sensations with some admixture
of intellectual elements," which are gained when the child
gradually begins to play. Much that is called play he considers true
experimenting, especially when the child is seen to be studying the
changes produced by his own activity, as when he tears paper into
small bits, shakes a bunch of keys, opens and shuts a box, plays with
sand, and empties bottles, and throws stones into the water. "The
zeal with which these seemingly aimless movements are executed is
remarkable. The sense of gratification must be very great, and is
principally due to the feeling of his own power, and of being the
cause of the various changes."

[Sidenote: Educational Value of Play]

All these authorities are quoted here in order to show that the
practical recognition of play which obtains among the advanced
educators to-day is not a piece of sentimentalism, as stern critics
sometimes declare, but the united opinion of some of the wisest minds
of this and former ages. As Froebel says, "Play and speech constitute
the element in which the child lives. At this stage (the first three
years of childhood) he imparts to everything the virtues of sight,
feeling, and speech. He feels the unity between himself and the whole
external world." And Froebel conceives it to be of the profoundest
importance that this sense of unity should not be disturbed. He finds
that play is the most spiritual activity of man at this age, "and at
the same time typical of human life as a whole--of the inner, hidden,
natural life of man and all things; it gives, therefore, joy, freedom,
contentment, inner and outer rest, peace with the world: it holds the
sources of all that is good. The child that plays thoroughly until
physical fatigue forbids will surely be a thorough, determined man,
capable of self-sacrifice for the promotion and welfare of himself and
others."

But all play does not deserve thi