by W. C. L.

THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS, JAN. 25, 1919.

PELMANISM is good news. It is the gospel of action. If the public could see the piles of letters which have been received at Pelman House, Bloomsbury Street, from thousands of Pelmanists, it could only come to one conclusion, that the Pelman System is a great creator and stimulant of energy and action.

This is one of the explanations of the enormous success which has attended, and continues to attend, the movement. Like the spirit of old, in the valley of dry bones, it is provoking and stirring the minds of men and women as nothing else has done in this generation.

• Pelmanism is not simply a bit of new propaganda.
• It is not merely a new system of education.
• It is not just a practical living application of the principles of psychology.
• It is all this, and much more.

Most of all,—it is an impelling, energizing and vivifying spirit, which develops, revives and animates the mental powers, and regalvanizes the will of all those who come under its sway.

• It transforms the slacker.
• It arouse, develops and directs human energy.
• It is a moral and mental dynamic, and enormously reinforces the executive faculties.

In bygone days, it was commonly supposed that a man had a strong will or he had not, and there was an end of it.

Pelmanism demonstrates that such a view is a fatal heresy. It proves that the will, like all the other faculties of the mind, may be developed and so directed as to issue in deed and action. This is one of the special claims of the system. It is a claim which meets the special demands of the times.

Demand for New Ideas.

There have been times in the history of the world when the demand was for men of ideas, men who could give us new statements and fresh generalisations. To-day the demand is not such. The call, at the present moment, is for men of vim and energy, such as can be translated into movement and action.

There is no lack of inventive genius, of scientific discovery, or of social ideals. The war has shown us that of these we have abundance, though in each of these departments bigger things are looming on the horizon. The great need is to turn all this into practical channels and so speed up national progress.

Enormous work has to be done, if the world is to be made safe for democracy and if democracy is to be safe for the world. Dreaming, longing, and simply wishing are useless. The thing that matters is practical, well-directed life and action.

King George made a telling appeal to our country a few years ago in the rousing call, “Wake up, England!” England is awake today as she has never been before. The rude hand of the cruelest war in history has sternly shaken her out of sleep. And now, wide awake, the British Empire is looking around and realising how much how much there is to be done.

There is no lack of vision or of desire. We are all hoping and longing for a sweeter, fairer, and kinder Land than was the Land of our Fathers. The supreme question is, how shall it be done? Statesmen, experts, educationists, captains of industry, and well-fed, well-housed, well-paid labor, we need all these. But all these have one common need, and that is an unfailing, constant supply of well-directed energy.

The Mental Energy.

Now, if an appeal were made to a hundred average students of the Pelman System, as to what is one of the chief results of training on Pelman lines, we are convinced that one and all would say, it develops to a surprising degree, human energy: it is the gospel of action.

The public has every right to submit the system to this test, since Pelmanism claims pre-eminently to fit men and women for business and professional life. It claims to make men and women:—

1. more capable,
2. more serviceable, and therefore,
3. of greater use and financial value to the community.

And the system must be judged ultimately to this standard—is the Pelmanist alert, active, accurate, thorough, progressive? Does he “carry on” and make others “carry on”?

Beyond a peradventure it does do this. The Pelmanist is a “live man.” He is awake. Mentally speaking, his coat is off, his sleeves are turned up, and he is out for work. It is a big claim, of course; but there are thousands who can substantiate it, and who avow that it makes work a pleasure and responsibility a delight.

Talking the other day to a man who was curious, if not sceptical, of the entire Pelman movement, he made the remark, “Well, you know, my feeling is that the thing is too good to be true.” But it would not be a gospel if it did not seem like that. A gospel is good news, something too good to be true on the face of things.

• It is not just another theory, or system, or philosophy.
• It is a spirit, and it is the spirit that gives life.
• It is the case with the Pelman movement. The training involved comes as a revelation.
• It gets at a man.
• It finds him.
• It reveals him to himself.
• It sets him going upon definite and wise lines.

Peace Production.

The need is for an awakened spirit, a spirit that moves and does things. It is of first importance, when one remembers the pressing need for Peace Production.

Probably Britain’s share in the enormous debt which the war has entailed is approximately 8,000 millions (British pounds), requiring something like 400 millions for annual interest, to say nothing about provision for sinking funds. How are these enormous liabilities to be met?

The answer is Production, which again means a more active and vigorous system of manufacture than this country has ever known. Brains, capital, factories, and machinery will be at hand. The new factor required is increased human energy.

It would pay both master and man to spread among our workers the gospel of Pelmanism, because this method is the last word in mental dynamics. More than ever we shall have to realise the vested potentialities of the shipwright, the boiler-maker, the engineer, the weaver and the spinner.

The power is there all right. It can be developed and applied in such a way as to be equal to the new demands. Pelmanism shows the way. Behind its principles is experience, and volumes of testimony. Let it be tested and the results need not be feared.

And how does it do all this? it may be asked. Not by any tricks and by means of any cheap short cuts.

• The system is rational and natural.
• It is practical and personal.
• It means the enrichment and application of personality.

The system is not profound except in the sense that all simple things are profound. Others may have, indeed, are, thinking and acting more or less according to Pelman principles.

But Pelmanism is the first complete graded system of mind and memory training which has appeared in this country. It needs no argument to commend it save the argument of experiment. It is self-evident to those who enter upon it. If a man will but follow its teaching, he will know that it is as interesting and practical as it is easy and enjoyable and fruitful.