Mental Efficiency
()
About this ebook
Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) was an English novelist renowned as a prolific writer throughout his entire career. The most financially successful author of his day, he lent his talents to numerous short stories, plays, newspaper articles, novels, and a daily journal totaling more than one million words.
Read more from Arnold Bennett
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/530 Occult & Supernatural masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Live on 24 Hours a Day: The Complete Original Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prosperity Super Pack #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Live on 24 Hours a Day: The Original Guide to Living Life to the Full Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prosperity Bundle #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY (A Self-Improvement Guide) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/530 Occult & Supernatural masterpieces you have to read before you die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Grand Babylon Hotel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Game of Life and How to Play It & How to Live on 24 Hours a Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Live on 24 Hours a Day (A Classic Guide to Self-Improvement) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Machine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Live on 24 Hours a Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Books and Persons; Being Comments on a Past Epoch, 1908-1911 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnna of the Five Towns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Card (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Live on 24 Hours a Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Twain (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Literary Taste and How to Form It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Literary Taste: How to Form It (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Mental Efficiency
Related ebooks
Mental Efficiency, and Other Hints to Men and Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMental Efficiency (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): And Other Hints to Men and Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mental Efficiency: Including Other Hints to Men and Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Increase your Mental Efficiency Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMental Efficiency Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMental efficiency (translated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMental Efficiency And Other Hints Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The best of Arnold Bennett Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaximizing Mental Potential: Insights for Both Men and Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCobwebs of Thought Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReinventing yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Joy of Thinking, Part 1, Fifth Ebook Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhymap: all life in a diagram Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Illusory Truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnravelling - Letting Go, Getting Well Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoy of Thinking, Part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mother of All Minds: Leaping Free of an Outdated Human Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Being Happy: In a Series of Letters from a Father to His Children: with Observations and Comments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Course in Spirituality: An Inspiring and Enthralling Journey into New Age Philosophies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Breathing: How to Become at Peace with Yourself and the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Painting As a Pastime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Go to a Medium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Hole Shamanism Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5How Men and Women Fit: Finally Understand Your Partner with the 3 Brains Theory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTunnels Through Time: Poems and Observations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHabits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Peek Under the Hood: A Brain Surgeon Looks at Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Say Hello To I: Feel Good To Be In Audience With Yourself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Psychology For You
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Letting Go: Stop Overthinking, Stop Negative Spirals, and Find Emotional Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Fun Personality Quizzes: Who Are You . . . Really?! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's OK That You're Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer's World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Covert Passive Aggressive Narcissist: The Narcissism Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laziness Does Not Exist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Mental Efficiency
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Mental Efficiency - Arnold Bennett
MENTAL EFFICIENCY
………………
Arnold Bennett
KYPROS PRESS
Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please show the author some love.
This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2015 by Arnold Bennett
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mental Efficiency
I: MENTAL EFFICIENCYToC
THE APPEAL
THE CURE
MENTAL CALISTHENICS
II: EXPRESSING ONE’S INDIVIDUALITY
III: BREAKING WITH THE PAST
IV: SETTLING DOWN IN LIFE
V: MARRIAGE
THE DUTY OF IT
THE ADVENTURE OF IT
THE TWO WAYS OF IT
VI: BOOKS
THE PHYSICAL SIDE
THE PHILOSOPHY OF BOOK-BUYING
VII: SUCCESS
CANDID REMARKS
THE SUCCESSFUL AND THE UNSUCCESSFUL
THE INWARDNESS OF SUCCESS
VIII: THE PETTY ARTIFICIALITIES
IX: THE SECRET OF CONTENT
Mental Efficiency
By
Arnold Bennett
MENTAL EFFICIENCY
………………
I: MENTAL EFFICIENCYTOC
………………
THE APPEAL
………………
IF THERE IS ANY VIRTUE in advertisements—and a journalist should be the last person to say that there is not—the American nation is rapidly reaching a state of physical efficiency of which the world has probably not seen the like since Sparta. In all the American newspapers and all the American monthlies are innumerable illustrated announcements of physical-culture specialists,
who guarantee to make all the organs of the body perform their duties with the mighty precision of a 60 h.p. motor-car that never breaks down. I saw a book the other day written by one of these specialists, to show how perfect health could be attained by devoting a quarter of an hour a day to certain exercises. The advertisements multiply and increase in size. They cost a great deal of money. Therefore they must bring in a great deal of business. Therefore vast numbers of people must be worried about the non-efficiency of their bodies, and on the way to achieve efficiency. In our more modest British fashion, we have the same phenomenon in England. And it is growing. Our muscles are growing also. Surprise a man in his bedroom of a morning, and you will find him lying on his back on the floor, or standing on his head, or whirling clubs, in pursuit of physical efficiency. I remember that once I went in
for physical efficiency myself. I, too, lay on the floor, my delicate epidermis separated from the carpet by only the thinnest of garments, and I contorted myself according to the fifteen diagrams of a large chart (believed to be the magna charta of physical efficiency) daily after shaving. In three weeks my collars would not meet round my prize-fighter’s neck; my hosier reaped immense profits, and I came to the conclusion that I had carried physical efficiency quite far enough.
A strange thing—was it not?—that I never had the idea of devoting a quarter of an hour a day after shaving to the pursuit of mental efficiency. The average body is a pretty complicated affair, sadly out of order, but happily susceptible to culture. The average mind is vastly more complicated, not less sadly out of order, but perhaps even more susceptible to culture. We compare our arms to the arms of the gentleman illustrated in the physical efficiency advertisement, and we murmur to ourselves the classic phrase: This will never do.
And we set about developing the muscles of our arms until we can show them off (through a frock coat) to women at afternoon tea. But it does not, perhaps, occur to us that the mind has its muscles, and a lot of apparatus besides, and that these invisible, yet paramount, mental organs are far less efficient than they ought to be; that some of them are atrophied, others starved, others out of shape, etc. A man of sedentary occupation goes for a very long walk on Easter Monday, and in the evening is so exhausted that he can scarcely eat. He wakes up to the inefficiency of his body, caused by his neglect of it, and he is so shocked that he determines on remedial measures. Either he will walk to the office, or he will play golf, or he will execute the post-shaving exercises. But let the same man after a prolonged sedentary course of newspapers, magazines, and novels, take his mind out for a stiff climb among the rocks of a scientific, philosophic, or artistic subject. What will he do? Will he stay out all day, and return in the evening too tired even to read his paper? Not he. It is ten to one that, finding himself puffing for breath after a quarter of an hour, he won’t even persist till he gets his second wind, but will come back at once. Will he remark with genuine concern that his mind is sadly out of condition and that he really must do something to get it into order? Not he. It is a hundred to one that he will tranquilly accept the status quo, without shame and without very poignant regret. Do I make my meaning clear?
I say, without a very poignant regret, because a certain vague regret is indubitably caused by realizing that one is handicapped by a mental inefficiency which might, without too much difficulty, be cured. That vague regret exudes like a vapour from the more cultivated section of the public. It is to be detected everywhere, and especially among people who are near the half-way house of life. They perceive the existence of immense quantities of knowledge, not the smallest particle of which will they ever make their own. They stroll forth from their orderly dwellings on a starlit night, and feel dimly the wonder of the heavens. But the still small voice is telling them that, though they have read in a newspaper that there are fifty thousand stars in the Pleiades, they cannot even point to the Pleiades in the sky. How they would like to grasp the significance of the nebular theory, the most overwhelming of all theories! And the years are passing; and there are twenty-four hours in every day, out of which they work only six or seven; and it needs only an impulse, an effort, a system, in order gradually to cure the mind of its slackness, to give tone
to its muscles, and to enable it to grapple with the splendours of knowledge and sensation