ABSTRACT
The aim of play is reached and fulfilled in the player's consciousness when the game is finished. As soon as any other aim is consciously connected with the play, as money gained in cards and roulette, or the "record" in competitions, the activity loses its character of play, pure and simple. The influence of the present in play is to be seen in the fact that the trend of the aims dominating the child's life at the time comes into evidence in it. Certain associations are then clearly recognizable: the wish for knowledge, movement, adornment, appearance and imitation are the direct causes of definite forms of play. The power of play in such self-teaching is possible from the fact that the practice takes place in harmless material; play is indeed to life as manoeuvres to warfare. The psychic function that causes such influence is imitation, according to Spencer's theory the only factor determining the kind and nature of the play.
