coating that makes his wisdom easy to take, pleasant to swallow. He writes of bears, of lions, of dogs, of mice, of mountains, but mirrored in his tales are the doings and sayings of human beings. And we cannot fail to see that the doings and sayings of the human beings of his day are not so far removed from the doings and sayings of to-day.

CHAPTER XX

SURVIVALS IN GAMES

If the earth were struck by one of Mr. Wells's comets, and if, in consequence, every human being now alive were to lose all the knowledge and habits which he had acquired from preceding generations (though retaining unchanged all his own powers of invention and memory and habituation) nine-tenths of the inhabitants of London and New York would be dead in a month, and 99 per cent of the remaining tenth would be dead in six months. They would have no language to express their thoughts, and no thoughts but vague reveries. They could not read notices, or drive motors or horses. They would wander about, led by the inarticulate cries of a few naturally dominant individuals, drowning themselves, as thirst came on, in hundreds at the riverside landing places, looting those shops where the smell of decaying food attracted them, and perhaps at the end stumbling upon the expedient of cannibalism. Even in the country districts men could not invent, in time to preserve their lives, methods of growing food, or taming animals, or making fire, or so clothing themselves as to endure a northern winter.

M

PLAYING WITH LIFE

-GRAHAM WALLAS.

AN woke to life in a strange world. He saw animals of many species, and creatures of his own kind. But for one long age he lived a life within himself, finding food when he was hungry, searching shelter when storms rocked the earth, climbing to a safe sleeping-place when the sun dropped behind the mountains. He shunned the animals that prowled everywhere about him; and shunned with even greater fear the creatures like himself.

But gradually man became accustomed to the world in which he found himself. He paused for a moment to watch a lion mother play with her cubs. He looked into the sky and saw birds riding on the wind. He passed through a jungle and heard monkeys jabbering in the treetops, mimicking one another, swinging from slender

branches high above the ground. He studied the ants that hurried in battalions across a square inch of earth; peered into a hollow tree which swarmed with insect life; watched a pair of brown bears roll together gleefully on a slope. And man moved closer to his own kind. Nature taught him companionship.

In companionship play was inevitable. All creatures of the earth play when they are together. At first it was with curious bits of shell that man amused himself, colourful bits of mystery swept up by the sea; and with sticks that crossed through some curious freak of nature; with stones that were marked in unusual ways; with nuts that fell from the treetops-with the many wonderful things of nature.

And while man played so in primitive times he learned about the world in which he lived. He played with life. He had the whole world for his playground, and all the glorious gifts of nature for his playthings. Unlike the cubs that rolled on the ground, the monkeys that jabbered in the treetops, he learned while he played. Reason entered play as it entered every other development of human life.

There came a time when man tired of the knucklebones, the dice, the skulls with which he played. He began to play with his own gifts-running races with feet as fleet as any animal's, wrestling, matching his skill and strength against the skill and strength of others. He discovered his voice and matched it with the voice of the birds, the animals. Here was a new kind of play. And here again man reasoned while he played, learned, developed.

Then came playthings of man's own invention-balls to throw and catch, clubs to serve more peaceful purposes than warring, draughts, kites, dolls, clever playthings that no lion mother ever invented for her cubs, that no monkeys ever enjoyed in their treetops. These playthings of man's creation came to be used in games reasoned out by the mind of man-ball, draughts, chess-games in which skill and reason are necessary. Through these games man devel

oped. While lions still romped and monkeys still jabbered, man reasoned out ever more skillful games to play, ever more difficult games to tax his powers of reasoning. And as a tool is sharpened by constant use, so were man's reasoning powers sharpened through use in his games of skill.

Throughout the long ages man has played with life and with the things of life. There was a time when he played with forked branches cut from the tree, and from this play there developed the use of the fork, the important discovery of the plough. There was a time when man played with shells over which he drew vegetable fibres, bits of twisted moss-and from this play evolved the harp, the lyre, and other musical instruments. Man played with kites, and the sailboat resulted. Man played with the lightning, and electricity was harnessed. Man played with the air waves, and the radio made its bow.

And so through long ages of development man has played, and learned, and made the world more interesting. We have to-day mechanical toys that are marvels of science and invention; racing cars that put to shame the chariots of another age; dolls that walk, and talk, and sleep. But they are playthings-just as the little wooden doll fondled by an Egyptian baby of long ago, or a string of shells dangled by some primitive infant, were playthings. The difference is in man and his development rather than in the playthings themselves.

After all, we are but children playing at being grown up. The many popular games we play to-day are but elaborate survivals of the early playdays of humanity.

THE GAMES OF GREECE AND ROME

It is to Greece that we must look for the greatest development of the ancient games.

The earliest games of which we have any record are those at the funeral of Patroclus, which form the subject of the 23rd Iliad.

They are noteworthy as showing that Greek games were in their origin clearly connected with religion; either, as here, a part of the funeral rites, or else instituted in honor of a god, or as a thankoffering for a victory gained or a calamity averted, or in expiation

The high bicycle which was popular about 1880

of some crime. Each of the great contests was held near some shrine or sacred place and is associated with some deity or mythical hero. The games of the Iliad and those of the Odyssey at the court of Alcinous are also of interest as showing at what an early date the distinctive forms of Greek athletics-boxing, wrestling, putting the weight, the foot and the chariot race-were determined. ("Encyclopædia Britannica.")