Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

“ As a system, Pelmanism is distinguished by its inexhaustible adaptability. It is this which makes ii it of value to the University graduate equally with the salesman, to the woman of leisure and to the busy financier, to the Army officer and to the commercial clerk. The Pelmanist is in no danger of becoming stereotyped in thought, speech, or action: on the contrary, individuality becomes more pronounced. ”

“ The system is, in fact, not a mental strait-jacket but an instrument: instead of attempting to impose universal ideals upon its students, it shows them how to give practical effect to their own ideals and aims. It completes man or woman in the mental sense, just as bodily training completes them in the physical sense. ”

“ Elderly men and women whose lives have been so fully occupied with business, social, or household matters that the intellectual side has been partly or wholly submerged: successful men in the commercial world whose enterprises have heretofore left them too little leisure to devote to self-culture: Army officers who find that the routine of a military life invites intellectual stagnation—these find that the Pelman Course offers them a stairway up to the higher things of life. ”

“ In many cases, those whose motive originally was material advancement of some kind have been quick to discover the deeper meanings and higher values of Pelmanism—a value far above money. It would be proper to say that there are many thousands of both sexes to whom the Pelman System has been the means of intensifying their interest and pleasure in existence as probably no other agency could have done. ”

“ Though leading a busy life, my income is inherited, not earned. My object in studying Pelman methods was not, therefore, in any way a professional one, but simply to improve my memory and mental capacity, which, at the age of fifty, were, I felt, becoming dull and rusty. ”