I am afraid I owe my readers, at least those among them who are interested in the subject, an apology for an essay on man's possibilities of ultimately controlling himself which appeared in this column a little more than a month ago. At that time I based my speculations on a book called Man Supreme Inheritance by F. Matthias Alexander, about which I had read in a volume of essays by Waldo Frank, and observed what I suspected to be a similarity between Mr. Alexander's book and another called Rest Working by Gerald Stanley Lee. I owe an apology, also to Mr. Alexander.

Since writing that column I have read Mr. Alexander's Man's Supreme Inheritance, as well as his latest book called Conscious Control of the Individual. The striking similarity of the basic ideas contained in both these books with those put forth in Mr. Lee's book prompted me to indulge in the labors of research, which have yielded some interesting facts.

Here, in part, is what I wrote in the essay under consideration: "Mr. Alexander has evolved a practice or technique for such control, and I suspect it is more than likely similar to the practice put forth by Gerald Stanley Lee in his book called Rest Working, a book which opens amazing possibilities for the future welfare of the world. Mr. Lee recognized the essential union of the mind and body and showed, at least to my satisfaction, that co-ordination of the two, with a consequent readjustment of the organs of the whole man, is not only possible, but probable, and that when this co-ordination is by practice achieved, even in a small way, a man experiences a new vitality and endurance which he had never before even suspected."

In Mr. Lee's book, which was published in 1925 by the Co-ordination Guild, Mr. Lee, the author of several widely known books, in addition to putting forth his theory and practice, records the manner in which he discovered the principles of co-ordination and developed them by personal experience. This, I thought, after reading Mr. Alexander's first book, was an amazing co-incidence, especially since Mr. Alexander had devoted his whole life ­ twenty-five years, I believe ­ exclusively to the practice of his epoch-making science.

As I say, it struck me as an extraordinary co-incidence until, after searching through Mr. Lee's earlier books, I came upon a passage in The Ghost in the White House which read, in part. as follows: "Mr. Alexander's quite extraordinary book, which leads one into a new world, to the edge, almost the precipitous edge of a new world. . . . I am inclined to believe that the deepest and most penetrating knowledge of that curious and delicate blend of spirit and clay we call a human being, and the most masterful technique for getting conscious control of it and of the helpless civilization in which it still is trying to live, are going to be found before many years in the brain and the hand of F. Matthias Alexander.

This is the technique which Mr. Lee in Rest Working claims to have discovered and developed himself after years of practice and observation.

In Rest Working Mr. Lee does not mention the name of F. Matthias Alexander; nor does he in Invisible Exercise, which preceded Rest Working. This latter book contains a description of exercises, one of which is described in great detail in Man's Supreme Inheritance.

I shouldn't attempt to burden my readers with this lengthy and unentertaining apologia were it not for the fact that I think Mr. Alexander's discovery to be one of the most profoundly important contributions to the future of mankind to have shown itself in our time. Leading scientists of England have attested to his principals, and if we are not to believe Mr. Alexander's own declarations of results based upon long experience, there are at least a few persons of eminently sound judgment to bear eager witness to all his claims. In this country, Professor John Dewey, of Columbia University, has done a great deal to gain recognition for Mr. Alexander's discovery. The April, 1919, issue of the Atlantic Monthly, I find, contains an article on the subject by James Harvey Robinson called "The Philosopher's Stone," during which this eminent sociologist, author of Mind in the Making, wrote: "I am not telling my plain tale because I happen to have been redeemed in body and soul through Mr. Alexander's method, or because I have known others to be so redeemed. I think his ability to straighten out adults and give them new energy and courage is very important, but by no means so important as the possible application of his theories in the field of education, by which it seems as if it might be possible to raise the whole race to a far higher plane than now it occupies."

Nor should I take up this subject were it not for the fact that Mr. Alexander's books specifically state the impossibility of conveying the technique of putting his theories to practice by way of the written word. He makes it quite plain that any efforts on the part of individuals to set about the delicate business of co-ordinating themselves for conscious control must inevitably lead to dangers of many kinds Mr. Lee's books lead the readers to suppose that a mastery of the principles involved in the practices of what Mr. Alexander calls psycho-physical control, is within the reach of any man.

Nor, again, should I burden my readers with something in which they may have no interest whatever, were it not for the fact that Mr. Alexander's contribution to man's salvation is so little known in this country. Making no effort at capturing the popular imagination of the mob Mr. Alexander has not received the wide recognition which he unquestionably deserves. I do wish that anyone who is interested would read his books, especially the doctors here in Brooklyn and the educators; for here they will find a practical idealism; a penetrating revelation of the trouble with mankind and a way to set it right. Here is no fantastic theory which sounds well but does not work. Here is a discovery which the world must accept if the processes of progressive evolution are to continue. Mankind has let civilization got the better of it; men have evolved into thinking creatures and still they think and move and have their being through their debauched instincts and senses. Mr. Alexander points the way out.

I wish also, that those who may have read these books, or those who may have come into direct contact with the teachings of Mr Alexander, would write to tell me of those experiences.

Arthur J. Busch