When did sport begin? If sport is, in essence（本质上，大体上） , play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for, as we all have observed（观察，遵守） , the beasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle¹（摔跤，搏斗） and play ball games. Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games. Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals - past, present, and future. Young animals, particularly, tumble（翻筋斗，跌倒） , chase, run wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh (or so it seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion². Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently³, to remove us temporarily from the anguish⁴（苦恼，痛苦） of life in earnest（认真的，正经的） .

Some philosophers（哲学家） have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble part of  our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly and  experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and imagination into action. Play is release from the tedious（沉闷的） battles against scarcity⁵ and decline which are the incessant⁶（不断的，连续的） , and inevitable⁷（必然的，不可避免的） , tragedies of life. This is a  grand conception that excites and provokes（激怒，煽动） . The holders⁸ of this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments⁹ ---- liturgy¹⁰（礼拜仪式，圣餐仪式） , literature, and law ---- can be traced to a play impulse which, paradoxically（自相矛盾地，反常地） , we see most purely¹¹ enjoyed by young beasts and children. Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.