By H. G. WELLS. B. W. Huebsch. 61 pp. Price $.60; by mail of THE
SURVEY $.65.
This is a small book, sixty-one pages of large type, containing an
address delivered at the Royal Institution in England. But the value
of the publication is out of proportion to its size. Here is the
abundant Wells literature of the last two decades in a compact and
highly concentrated extract form. And this means, as every lover
of this English author will know at once, a wealth of suggestive
speculation and stimulating idealism.
The thesis of the book is that we now have the materials in hand for
a systematic and accurate “exploration of the future.” There is no
reason why we should not be able to forecast the future development
of society, by a critical study of operative causes, as definitely
as we now reconstruct the past conditions of the race by a critical
study of the geological and archeological record. What the scientist
now does in the fields of physics or astronomy, we ought to be able
to do just as easily in the field of social life. “Suppose,” says
Wells, “that the laws of social and political development were
given as many brains, were given as much attention, criticism and
discussion, as we have given to the laws of chemical combination,
and what might we not expect?” Here, evidently, is the philosophical
justification of The War of the Worlds, Anticipations, The Future in
America, New Worlds for Old, and many another fascinating volumes from
Wells’ pen which might be mentioned.
This thesis, however, constitutes only a part of the book’s abundant
material. A keen psychological discussion of the two divergent types
of mind, the forward-looking and the backward-looking, into which
all men may be divided; a passing glance at the pragmatic standard
of “it works”; a survey of the great-man theory versus the economic
theory of social determinism; an incisive critique of positivism; a
bold and eloquent prophecy of the future destiny of man upon this
planet—here are only a few of the “extras” which are contained in
this distillation of the Wells philosophy. About as good an example
of _multum in parvo_ as I have ever seen!