AN OUTLINE OF HISTORY

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1921, Page 4

AN OUTLINE OF HISTORY

Mr 11. G. Wells used to think that ' .ii 1 enee i<;u the force that would re j generate the world; our destinies lay in the hands of the biologist, the chemist, and the engineer. But he has since come to the conclusion that science alone is not enough. The universe which these gentlemen would create is somewhat mechanical; they have been temptd to apply their arts to destructive no less than to constructive ends. Air Wells is now convinced that the progress of mankind depends upon the study of history, the history not of one country or another in isolation, hut of man as a whole. “There can he no common peace and prosjjerity without common historical ideas. Without such ideas to hold them together in harmonious co-operation, with nothing hut narrow, selfish and conflicting nationalist traditions, races and peoples nre bound to drift towards conflict and destruction.” AH' H. G. Wells not only writes the prescription which will enable us to become world citizens; be actually makes it up for us himself. There is he says, no really adequate sketch of the history of the universe in existence, so he has supplied one. The ordinary history, he insists, “deals with reigns, and pedigrees and campaigns” a disputable proposition as far as the modern historical method is concerned • -■whereas his envisage races and ages. To present in some six hundred pages tiro story of our planet from the remote period when life was first evolved down to our own day is an undertaking which might dafint the most intrepid ; hut Air Wells never suffers from any lack of self-confidence, and "The Outline of History” is the result.

When this originally appeared in seri- . al form. Air Weils attention was drawn to a number of “minor slips” and , printer’s errors, which have been amended in the complete volume. How- : ever, the new matter is not confined to , these corrections. Mr Wells speaks appreciatively of the patience of the specialists whoso domains he “has in- ! vaded and traversed in what must have seemed to many of them an exasperatingly impudent and superficial way." But some of these specialists have not been able to hold iheir peace, and have challenged his facts and conclusions in notes which arc printed with the text. The most interesting portions of the ■‘outline” are the beginning, in which he describes the evolution of man, and the end, in which lie surveys the postwar world and speculates on the future. Curiously enough in his references to sub-man and primitive man he omits to mention the Talgai skull which was found in Queensland some years ago, and which, we understand, has thrown an important light on an obscure chapter in the history of human development. The least satisfactory sections are those relating to the civilisations ot Greece and Rome, fn his endeavour to make tts retain our sense of proportion. AH' Wells exposes 'himself to the criticism that lie luts lost his own. He is profoundly impressed with the shortness of “history” as compared with the age of the world. Alan lias recorded his experience during a span that represents an infinitesimal drop in the ocean of time. Any period, however great it may loom in our vision, is httl an incident. The glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome are a mere, flash momentarily projected on the screen of life. Rut .surely the significance of a jwjriod should he measured by its effect upon modern civilisation. Other great civilisations have vanished, leaving us untouched, whereas the ideas tlm! Greece and Rome beqiientiled arc still a living influence.

11l his treatment of this section Mr Wells suiters from a further disability. He has always belittled classical learn* ina;. The value ot Greek and Latin, in Ins opinion, has been absurdly overrated, Anyone can get all be wants of classical literature with the aid of translations. Xn doubt there are excellent translations, but they cannot entirely make up for ignorance of the language. The impression they give must at the best be second band. It is rather daring of Mr Wells, who has no Greek, to pose as an authoritative in-

terpreter of the Greek spirit. He says that in the Perielean age the atmosphere of Athens was very much that of “the lower sort of contemporary music hall.”,No wonder (hat Professor Gilbert Murray is moved to protest. The final answer to Mr Wells’s novel theory lies in the Greek drama. The patrons of tlio lower sort of contemporary music ball would not have crowded the theatre day after day, JO,OOO strong, to witness the trilogies of the great tragedians. Some of his comments on the Roman Empire are equally unwarrantable. W’itli touching faith he accepts as facts the scandalous gossip of partisan chroniclers; Suetonius is. as unreliable a witness to the character of Mi Lloyd George. Mr Wells seems to imply that provincial maladministration was-the rule rather than the exception, although it is as unfair to generalise from the prosecutions of Verres and the

like as it would be to judge liritisli colonial administration by the impeachment of Warren Hastings and the indictment of Picton. And Mr Wells does not appear to realise that a -system of organisaion which ran of itself long after the central nut. ority bad decayed cannot be dismissed as “a violent and vulgar fraud.” It is not surprising that these pages bristle with comments by Professor Gilbert Murray, Professor J. L. M.v res, and Mr 'Edward Barker.

Coming to the present day, Mr Wells lias bis usual fling at the professional soldier (Julius Caesar he excludes from the category as being primarily a politician, and Napoleon as being an “inexperienced, fresh-minded young man”) He gives a somewhat caustic account of the Versailles Conference, quoting freely from the books of Air Keynes and Dr Dillon, and then passes into the realms of speculation, where he walks with greater ease and without fear of contradiction. Civilisation, be believes, is moving in the direction of a world State, on the nature of which his former ideas have undergone some modification. II is previous Utopias erred on the side of an excess of uniformity; man was unduly standardised. But the community towards which Air Wells thinks we are progressing will be “more mixed, more various, and more interesting than any existing community. . . . communities all to on pattern,

like boxes of toy soldiers, are things of the past rather than of the future.” Mr Wells does not profess to know when his ideal will he realised ; its <■.•ll- - depends upon man’s ability to learn from the past:—“One 'sinnot foretell the surprises and disappointments. the future lias in store. Before (hi - chapter on the World S t : 1 1• > can begin tai'ly in our histori s. other chapters as yet unsuspected may have to lie wiltteii, as long and a - lull el cnn'l et as an account of l'c growth an 1 rivalries of the great I’owets. I here

may be tragic economic slrtigges, grim grapplings <!f race with race and class with class. We do not know, we can* not tell. These are unnecessary disasters, lint tley may he unavoidable disinters. Human hisloiy becomes more and moie a race between education and catastrophe. Aga 11st the unliving effect of (" rist' ndom ami against the unifying etleet ol the mechanical revolution calastrouhe won. New falsities may arise and hold men in some unrighteous and fated scheme ol older lot a time bo I ere they eollap.-e amidst the misery and slaughter of generations. Yet clumsily or smothly, the world, it seems, progresses and will prog■<*•-•■'•