Arnold Bennett

Mental Efficiency Arnold Bennett

The correspondence which I have received in answer to my appeal shows that at any rate I didnot overstate the case. There is, among a vast mass of reflecting people in this country, a clearconsciousness of being mentally less than efficient, and a strong (though ineffective) desire that suchmental inefficiency should cease to be. The desire is stronger than I had imagined, but it does notseem to have led to much hitherto. And that "course of treatment for the mind," by means of whichwe are to "realize some of the ambitions which all of us cherish in regard to the utilization in ourspare time of the magnificent machine which we allow to rust within our craniums"-thatdesiderated course of treatment has not apparently been devised by anybody. The Sandow of thebrain has not yet loomed up above the horizon. On the other hand, there appears to be a generalexpectancy that I personally am going to play the rôle of the Sandow of the brain. Vain thought!I have been very much interested in the letters, some of which, as a statement of the matter inquestion, are admirable. It is perhaps not surprising that the best of them come from women-for(genius apart) woman is usually more touchingly lyrical than man in the yearning for the ideal. Themost enthusiastic of all the letters I have received, however, is from a gentleman whose notion isthat we should be hypnotised into mental efficiency. After advocating the establishment of "aninstitution of practical psychology from whence there can be graduated fit and proper people whoseefforts would be in the direction of the subconscious mental mechanism of the child or even theadult," this hypnotist proceeds: "Between the academician, whose specialty is an inconsequentialcobweb, the medical man who has got it into his head that he is the logical foster-father forpsychonomical matters, and the blatant 'professor' who deals with monkey tricks on a fewsomnambules on the music-hall stage, you are allowing to go unrecognized one of the most potentfactors of mental development." Am I? I have not the least idea what this gentleman means, but Ican assure him that he is wrong. I can make more sense out of the remarks of anothercorrespondent who, utterly despising the things of the mind, compares a certain class of young mento "a halfpenny bloater with the roe out," and asserts that he himself "got out of the groove" by dintof having to unload ten tons of coal in three hours and a half every day during several years. This isinteresting and it is constructive, but it is just a little beside the point.