heredity. Thus we rehearse the activities of our ancestors, back we
know not how far, and repeat their life work in summative and
adumbrated ways. It is reminiscent albeit unconsciously, of our line
of descent; and each is the key to the other. The psycho-motive
impulses that prompt it are the forms in which our forebears have
transmitted to us their habitual activities. Thus stage by stage we
reenact their lives. Once in the phylon many of these activities were
elaborated in the life and death struggle for existence. Now the
elements and combinations oldest in the muscle history of the race are
rerepresented earliest in the individual, and those later follow in
order. This is why the heart of youth goes out into play as into
nothing else, as if in it man remembered a lost paradise. This is why,
unlike gymnastics, play has as much soul as body, and also why it so
makes for unity of body and soul that the proverb "Man is whole only
when he plays" suggests that the purest plays are those that enlist
both alike. To address the body predominantly strengthens unduly the
fleshy elements, and to overemphasize the soul causes weakness and
automatisms. Thus understood, play is the ideal type of exercise for
the young, most favorable for growth, and most self-regulating in both
kind and amount. For its forms the pulse of adolescent enthusiasm
beats highest. It is unconstrained and free to follow any outer or
inner impulse. The zest of it vents and satisfies the strong passion
of youth for intense erethic and perhaps orgiastic states, gives an
exaltation of self-feeling so craved that with no vicarious outlet it
often impels to drink, and best of all realizes the watchword of the
Turners, _frisch, frei, froehlich, fromm_ [Fresh, free, jovial,
pious.].

Ancient Greece, the history and literature of which owe their
perennial charm for all later ages to the fact that they represent the