Chapter 5
Finally I come to the collection of various papers issued in 1914 under the title _An Englishman Looks at the World_--a book that I may pass with the comment that it exhibits Mr Wells in his more captious moods, deliberately more captious in some instances, no doubt, inasmuch as the various papers were written for serial publication--and that _Confession of Faith and Rule of Life_, published in 1907 as _First and Last Things_. The opening is unnecessarily complicated by the exposition of a metaphysic that is quite uncharacteristic and has little to do with the personal exposition that follows; and, indeed, I feel with regard to the whole work that it attempts to define the indefinable. I deprecate the note of finality implied in the title. "It is as it stands now," I read in the Introduction, "the frank confession of what one man of the early Twentieth Century has found in life and himself," but that man has found much since then, and will continue to find much as he grows continually richer in experience. So that while no student of Wells' writings can afford to overlook _First and Last Things_, I would warn him against the danger of concluding that in that book he will find at last the ultimate expression of character and belief, set out in the form of a categorical creed. Again I find a spirit and overlook the letter. I choose to take as representative such a passage as the following, with all its splendid vagueness and lack of dogma, rather than a definite expression of belief that Mr Wells does not believe in a personal immortality. This passage runs: "It seems to me that the whole living creation may be regarded as walking in its sleep, as walking in the sleep of individualised illusion, and that now out of it all rises man, beginning to perceive his larger self, his universal brotherhood, and a collective synthetic purpose to increase Power and realise Beauty...."
* * * * *
And now that I have attempted my interpretation, I look back and confess that it is a very personal reading of my subject. I may have sought too eagerly for all those passages in which I found a note that roused in me the most thrilling response. I may have omitted to display vital issues that more truly characterise H.G. Wells than the appealing urgencies, idealisms, and fluencies that I have found most sympathetic and most admirable. But if I appear to have done him an injustice in some particulars, it is rather because I have been absorbed by the issue I sought to reveal, than because I deliberately weighed and rejected others. This short essay can be no more than an introduction to the works it describes. It was never intended to be critical. I have had no intention of discussing technique, nor of weighing Mr Wells against his contemporaries in any literary scale. But I have attempted to interpret the spirit and the message that I have found in his books; and I have made the essay in the hope that any reader who may consequently be stirred to read or to re-read Wells will do so with a mind prepared to look below the surface expression.
I feel no shade of hesitation when I say that H.G. Wells is a great writer. His fecundity, his mastery of language, his comprehension of character are gifts and abilities that certain of his contemporaries have in equal, or in some particulars in larger measure. But he alone has used his perfected art for a definite end. He has not been content to record his observations of the world as he has seen it, to elaborate this or that analysis of human motive, or to relate the history of a few selected lives. He has done all this, but he has done infinitely more by pointing the possible road of our endeavour. Through all his work moves the urgency of one who would create something more than a mere work of art to amuse the multitude or afford satisfaction to the critic. His chief achievement is that he has set up the ideal of a finer civilisation, of a more generous life than that in which we live; an ideal that, if it is still too high for us of this generation, will be appreciated and followed by the people of the future.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF H.G. WELLS' PRINCIPAL WRITINGS
Select Conversations with an Uncle (_Lane_). 1895.
The Time Machine--An Invention (_Heinemann_). 1895.
*The Stolen Bacillus and Other Stories (_Macmillan_). 1895.
The Wonderful Visit (_Dent_). 1895.
The Island of Dr Moreau (_Heinemann_). 1896.
The Wheels of Chance (_Dent_). 1896.
*The Plattner Story (_Macmillan_). 1897.
The Invisible Man (_MacMillan_). 1897.
The War of the Worlds (_Heinemann_). 1898.
When the Sleeper Wakes (_Nelson_). 1899.
Afterwards published (1911) in a revised and altered edition, as "The Sleeper Awakes."
*Tales of Space and Time (_Macmillan_). 1899.
Love and Mr Lewisham (_Macmillan_). 1900.
Certain Personal Matters (_Unwin_). 1901.
Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (_Chapman & Hall_). 1901.
The First Men in the Moon (_Macmillan_). 1901.
The Discovery of the Future (A Lecture given at the Royal Institute). 1902.
The Sea Lady--A Tissue of Moonshine. 1902.
Mankind in the Making (_Chapman & Hall_). 1903.
*Twelve Stories and a Dream (_Macmillan_). 1903.
The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth (_Macmillan_). 1904.
A Modern Utopia (_Nelson_). 1905.
Kipps--The Story of a Simple Soul (_Macmillan_). 1905.
In the Days of the Comet (_Macmillan_). 1906.
The Future in America--A Search after Realities (_Chapman & Hall_). 1906.
First and Last Things--A Confession of Faith and Rule of Life (_Constable_). 1907.
The Misery of Boots (Fabian Tract). 1907.
Socialism and Marriage (Fabian Tract). 1908.
New Worlds for Old (_Constable_). 1908.
The War in the Air (_Bell_). 1908.
Tono-Bungay (_Macmillan_). 1909.
Ann Veronica--A Modern Love Story (_Unwin_). 1909.
The History of Mr Polly (_Nelson_). 1910.
The New Machiavelli (_Lane_) 1910.
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (_Nelson_). 1911.
Floor Games (A book about play for children) (_Palmer_). 1911.
Socialism and the Great State (A contribution by H.G. Wells. The book is written by fifteen authors) (_Harper_). 1911.
Marriage (_Macmillan_). 1912.
The Passionate Friends--A Novel (_Macmillan_). 1913.
Little Wars (A book about play for children) (_Palmer_). 1913.
An Englishman Looks at the World (_Cassell_). 1914.
The World Set Free--A Story of Mankind (_Macmillan_). 1914.
The volumes marked * are collections of short stories, the best of which were republished in "The Country of the Blind," 1911.
NOTE.--Some of these volumes have been published under different titles in the U.S.A. (See American Bibliography.)
AMERICAN BIBLIOGRAPHY
Island of Dr Moreau (_Duffield_). 1896.
Invisible Man (_Harper_). 1898.
Thirty Strange Stories (_Harper_). 1898.
When the Sleeper Wakes [English title, "The Sleeper Awakes."] (_Harper_). 1899.
Anticipations (_Harper_). 1902.
Discovery of the Future (_Smithsonian Institute Washington_). 1903.
Discovery of the Future (_Huebsch_). 1913.
Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth (_Scribners_). 1904.
Love and Mr Lewisham (_Stokes_). 1904.
Mankind in the Making (_Scribners_). 1904.
Modern Utopia (_Scribners_). 1905.
Twelve Stories and a Dream (_Scribners_). 1905.
Kipps (_Scribners_). 1905.
Future in America (_Harper_). 1906.
Time Machine--An Invention (_Holt & Company_). 1906.
In the Days of the Comet (_Century Company_). 1906.
First and Last Things (_Putnams_). 1908.
New Worlds for Old (_Macmillan Company_). 1908-13.
Socialism and the Family (_Ball Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts_). 1908.
This Misery of Boots (_Ball Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts_). 1908.
War in the Air (_Macmillan Company_). 1908.
War in the Air (_Grosset & Dunlap_). 1910.
Ann Veronica (_Harper_). 1909.
Select Conversations with an Uncle (_Saalfield Publishing Company, Akron, Ohio_). 1909.
Tono-Bungay (_Duffield_). 1909.
War of the Worlds (_Harper_). 1909.
History of Mr Polly (_Duffield_). 1910.
History of Mr Polly (_Grosset & Dunlap_). 1912.
New Machiavelli (_Duffield_). 1910.
Door in the Wall and Other Stories (_Mitchell Kennerley_). 1911.
Floor Games (_Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, Massachusetts_). 1912.
Socialism and the Great State (_Harper_). 1912. (See page 119.)
Marriage (_Duffield_). 1912.
Little Wars (_Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, Massachusetts_). 1913.
Passionate Friends (_Harper_). 1913.
Wheels of Chance--A Bicycling Idyll (_Macmillan Company_). 1913. Illustrated by F.A. Symington. [English title, "The Wheels of Chance: A Holiday Adventure."]
The Wonderful Visit (_E.P. Dutton & Company_). 1914.
Social Forces in England and America (_Harper_). 1914.
The World Set Free (_E.P. Dutton & Company_). 1914.
INDEX
_Ann Veronica_, 65, 76 _Anticipations_, 99
Bebel, 100 Bellamy, Edward, 105 Bromley, 13
Capital and Labour, 35 Characterisation, 60 Common-sense, 98 Comte, 97 _Country of the Blind, The_, 29, 55
_Dynasts, The_, 40
Education, 111 _Englishman Looks at the World, An_, 112
Fabre, Henri, 63 Fecundity, 115 Feminism, 72 _First and Last Things_, 112 _First Men in the Moon, The_, 46 Fixed Opinions, 102 _Food of the Gods, The_, 51, 54 _Future of America, The_, 109
Henley House, 15 _History of Mr Polly, The_, 65, 67 Huxley, 19 Hyndman, 100
Idealism, 69 Insurgent Bigness, 52 _In the Days of the Comet_, 36, 46 _Invisible Man, The_, 25, 28 _Island of Dr Moreau, The_, 25 Isolation, 86
_Kipps_, 60-65
_Love and Mr Lewisham_, 60-64
_Man of the Year Million, The_, 20, 30 _Mankind in the Making_, 99 _Marriage_, 73, 82-85 Marx, 100 Metaphysics, 112 Midhurst Grammar School, 14 _Modern Utopia, A_, 99, 104
_New Machiavelli, The_, 65, 77-79, 82, 86 New Republic, The, 99, 103, 104 _New Worlds for Old_, 109
_Passionate Friends, The_, 73, 89, 95
Rule of Thumb, 77, 78, 88
Samurai, 108 _Sea Lady, The_, 49, 50 Shaw, 100 Socialism, 99, 110 South Kensington School, 14 Spencer, Herbert, 97 Spirit of Freedom, 96, 103
_Time Machine, The_, 20, 23 _Tono-Bungay_, 59, 73
Up Park, 14 Utopias, 106-108
Verne, Jules, 17
_War in the Air, The_, 40, 42, 44, 56 _War of the Worlds, The_, 25, 29 Wells, Mr and Mrs Joseph, 12 _Wheels of Chance, The_, 60 _When the Sleeper Wakes (The Sleeper Awakes)_, 33, 36 _Wife of Sir Isaac Harman, The_, 91, etc. Women Employees, 92, 94 _Wonderful Visit, The_, 23, 25 _World Set Free, The_, 43, 46