essence, the primordial quality of play. Nature, so our reasoning
mind tells us, could just as easily have given her children all those
useful functions of discharging superabundant energy, of relaxing
after exertion, of training for the demands of life, of compensating
for unfulfilled longings, etc., in the form of purely mechanical
exercises and reactions. But no, she gave us play, with its tension,
its mirth, and its fun.

Now this last-named element, the fun of playing, resists all
analysis, all logical interpretation. As a concept, it cannot be
reduced to any other mental category. No other modern language
known to me has the exact equivalent of the English "fun". The
Dutch "aardigkeit" perhaps comes nearest to it (derived from
"aard" which means the same as "Art" and "Wesen" ¹ in German,
and thus evidence, perhaps, that the matter cannot be reduced
further). We may note in passing that "fun" in its current usage
is of rather recent origin. French, oddly enough, has no cor-
responding term at all; German half makes up for it by "Spass"
and "Witz" together. Nevertheless it is precisely this fun-element
that characterizes the essence of play. Here we have to do with
an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a
glance right down to the animal level. We may well call play a
"totality" in the modern sense of the word, and it is as a totality
that we must try to understand and evaluate it.

Since the reality of play extends beyond the sphere of human life
it cannot have its foundations in any rational nexus, because this
would limit it to mankind. The incidence of play is not associated
with any particular stage of civilization or view of the universe.
Any thinking person can see at a glance that play is a thing on
its own, even if his language possesses no general concept to express
it. Play cannot be denied. You can deny, if you like, nearly all
abstractions: justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You
can deny seriousness, but not play.

But in acknowledging play you acknowledge mind, for whatever
else play is, it is not matter. Even in the animal world it bursts
the bounds of the physically existent. From the point of view of a
world wholly determined by the operation of blind forces, play
would be altogether superfluous. Play only becomes possible,
thinkable and understandable when an influx of mind breaks down
the absolute determinism of the cosmos. The very existence of
play continually confirms the supra-logical nature of the human

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