THE PLAY OF MAN.
By KARL GROOS, Professor of Philosophy in the University of
Basel, and author of "The Play of Animals." Translated, with
the author's cooperation, by Elizabeth L. Baldwin, and
edited, with a Preface and Appendix, by Prof. J. Mark
Baldwin, of Princeton University. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50 net;
postage, 12 cents additional.
The results of Professor Groos's original and acute
investigations are of peculiar value to those who are
interested in psychology and sociology, and they are of
great importance to educators. He presents the
anthropological aspects of the subject treated in his
psychological study of the Play of Animals, which has
already become a classic. Professor Groos, who agrees with
the followers of Weismann, develops the great importance of
the child's play as tending to strengthen his inheritance in
the acquisition of adaptations to his environment. The
influence of play on character, and its relation to
education, are suggestively indicated. The playful
manifestations affecting the child himself and those
affecting his relations to others have been carefully
classified, and the reader is led from the simpler exercises
of the sensory apparatus through a variety of divisions to
inner imitations and social play. The biological, æsthetic,
ethical, and pedagogical standpoints receive much attention
from the investigator. While this book is an illuminating
contribution to scientific literature, it is of eminently
practical value. Its illustrations and lessons will be
studied and applied by educators, and the importance of this
original presentation of a most fertile subject will be
appreciated by parents as well as by those who are
interested as general students of sociological and
psychological themes.