us, upon
another who is enjoying a child's game like a child. The trouble is
that many of us are so contracted in and oppressed by our own
self-consciousness that open spontaneity is out of the question and
even inconceivable. The sooner we shake it off, the better. When the
great philosopher said, "Except ye become as little children," he
must have meant it all the way through in spirit, if not in the
letter. It certainly is the common-sense view, whichever way we look
at it, and proves as practical as walking upon one's feet.

With the spontaneity grows the ability to be amused, and with that
ability comes new power for better and really serious work.

To endeavor with all your might to win, and then if you fail, not to
care, relieves a game of an immense amount of unnecessary nervous
strain. A spirit of rivalry has so taken hold of us and become such
a large stone in the way, that it takes wellnigh a reversal of all
our ideas to realize that this same spirit is quite compatible with
a good healthy willingness that the other man should win--if he can.
Not from the goody-goody motive of wishing your neighbor to
beat,--no neighbor would thank you for playing with him in that
spirit,--but from a feeling that you have gone in to beat, you have
done your best, as far as you could see, and where you have not, you
have learned to do better. The fact of beating is not of paramount
importance. Every man should have his chance, and, from your
opponent's point of view, provided you were as severe on him as you
knew how to be at the time, it is well that he won. You will see
that it does not happen again.

Curious it is that the very men or women who would scorn to play a
child's game in a childlike spirit, will show the best known form of
childish fretfulness and sheer naughtiness in their way of taking a
game which is considered to be more on a level with the adult mind,
and so rasp their nerves and the nerves of their opponents that
recreation is simply out of the question.

Whilst one should certainly have the ability to enjoy a child's game
with a child and like a child, that not only does not exclude the
preference which many, perhaps most of us may have for more mature
games, it gives the power to play those games with a freedom and
ease which help to preserve a healthy nervous system.

If, however, amusement is taken for the sole purpose of preserving a
normal nervous system, or for returning to health, it loses its