Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

Child's Play 239
sovereignty, for it is the wellspring of
romance, and the actions and the excitement
to which it gives rise lend themselves to
almost any sort of fable. And thus cricket,
which is a mere matter of dexterity, palpably
about nothing and for no end, often fails to
satisfy infantile craving. It is a game, if
you like, but not a game of play. You
cannot tell yourself a story about cricket ;
and the activity it calls forth can be justi-
fied on no rational theory. Even football,
although it admirably simulates the tug and
the ebb and flow of battle, has presented
difficulties to the mind of young sticklers
after verisimilitude ; and I knew at least one
little boy who was mightily exercised about
the presence of the ball, and had to spirit
himself up, whenever he came to play, with
an elaborate story of enchantment, and take
the missile as a sort of talisman bandied
about in conflict between two Arabian
nations.
To think of such a frame of mind, is to
become disquieted about the bringing up of