The dances, feasts, and games of primitive people, wherein they
rehearse hunting and war and act and dance out their legends, bring
individuals and tribes together.[25] Work is menial, cheerless,
grinding, regular, and requires more precision and accuracy and,
because attended with less ease and pleasure and economy of movement,
is more liable to produce erratic habits. Antagonistic as the forms
often are, it may be that, as Carr says, we may sometimes so suffuse
work with the play spirit, and _vice versa_, that the present
distinction between work and play will vanish, the transition will be
less tragic and the activities of youth will be slowly systematised
into a whole that better fits his nature and needs; or, if not this,
we may at least find the true proportion and system between drudgery
and recreation.
The worst product of striving to do things with defective psychic
impulsion is fatigue in its common forms, which slows down the pace,
multiplies errors and inaccuracies, and develops slovenly habits,
ennui, flitting will specters, velleities and caprices, and
neurasthenic symptoms generally. It brings restlessness, and a
tendency to many little heterogeneous, smattering efforts that weaken
the will and leave the mind like a piece of well-used blotting paper,
covered with traces and nothing legible.
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