Both results may be seen in some types of
kindergarten games where the idea of play is so highly symbolic
that only the adult is conscious of it. Unless the children
succeed in reading in some quite different idea of their own,
they move about either as if in a hypnotic daze, or they respond
to a direct excitation.
The point of these remarks is that play has an end in the sense
of a directing idea which gives point to the successive acts.
Persons who play are not just doing something (pure physical
movement); they are trying to do or effect something, an
attitude that involves anticipatory forecasts which stimulate
their present responses. The anticipated result, however, is
rather a subsequent action than the production of a specific
change in things. Consequently play is free, plastic. Where
some definite external outcome is wanted, the end has to be held
to with some persistence, which increases as the contemplated
result is complex and requires a fairly long series of
intermediate adaptations. When the intended act is another
activity, it is not necessary to look far ahead and it is
possible to alter it easily and frequently. If a child is making
a toy boat, he must hold on to a single end and direct a
considerable number of acts by that one idea. If he is just
"playing boat" he may change the material that serves as a boat
almost at will, and introduce new factors as fancy suggests.
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