SECTION 20. STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 201 



mental processes dwelt on in the series of thirty-six Conclusions. 

 Once methodology becomes a recognised science, experimental 

 methodological training of a methodical character, under the 

 supervision of trained teachers, will be universal. That is, the 

 student of methodology will not only strive to comprehend and 

 memorise certain propositions, but he will undergo a course of 

 experimental training. 



CONCLUSION 10. 



Need of securing the Mental, Physiological, and Environmental 

 Conditions conducive to Efficiency and to Waste Elimination. 



88. Throughout our discussions in this treatise our minds 

 have been, and will be, almost exclusively concentrated on 

 the impersonal methodological means whereby our objective 

 methodological goal is to be reached. Seek truth, we urge, 

 and do this by scrupulous attention to certain conclusions which 

 have been, or which may be, formulated. First, we aver, 

 ascertain the precise nature of the problem to be investigated, 

 then examine the facts according to certain scientific canons, 

 and so forth. In each of these cases we may enter into minute 

 detail; but throughout we remain on the objective plane, ad- 

 vising what every one should do who is in quest of truth and 

 ignoring circumstances foreign to this objective standpoint. 



In brief, we are assuming throughout that we are psycho- 

 logical and physiological automata, uninfluenced by anything 

 save inclination or aversion to truth. Of course, men pre- 

 suppose that insanity or serious indisposition will detrimentally 

 affect efficiency; but they also tacitly postulate that in the 

 case of what is called the normal individual the functioning 

 of the mind and body is virtually invariable and perfect. 



Yet this is very far from being true. Haphazard movements 

 of the mind and body, unnecessary slowness, uneconomical use 

 of energies, overwork or unintelligent work resulting in para- 

 lysing fatigue, ill adapted instruments, materials, and surround- 

 ings generally, contribute towards sensibly depreciating the 

 quantity and the quality of work. Disregard of these and ana- 

 logous pre-requisites will result in an output markedly poorer 

 in every respect than that attained when the attendant non- 

 methodological circumstances are favourable. 



Accordingly, we shall endeavour to formulate the general 

 conditions conducive to efficiency, comprehending every type 

 of labour. 1 



Assuming output of high quality as the end, ideal economy 

 in its production will be achieved by securing the mental, 



1 An essentially popular and able treatment of the subject will be found 

 in Le travail intellectuel el la volonte, by Jules Payot, Paris, 1920. "Pel- 

 raanism" is the name of a present-day system of mind-training recommended 

 by many literary and other notabilities. 



