A MODEL “LIFE.”

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19462, 29 December 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

A MODEL “LIFE.”

Record of Ideas.

“ EXPERIMENT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY," Vol. I, by H. G. Weils (victor goiipnpz anri The Cresset Press). Biographies are (usually 'dull. It 1= quite false to beljeye that a c-omm-on-place incident turns into -something rich and strange because a famous map is the central figure. .It is "only the blockhead vv-h-o read's- the gossip - writer on -the great man and Ignores the great man hi-msetf: only the dullard who worships the beard rif .the prophet and neglects the prophetic books. More intelligent readers are interested! in the 'celebrity’s ideas rather than in his grandmothers. But unfortunately most biographies are written for tfle blockheadanfl the dullarfl:" Nor are autobiographies any fba’tteir: for then the author "is even more -likely to -over-estimate the "importance of his subject. Mr Weils, however, is under no illusions. He does not think that every detail about his- 'Childhood is interesting and Important because it is a detail about" his childhood. He sets •down his memories primarily because he thinks they have social, and psychological significance. ! ‘My indlvid'ual -story,” lie isays, “mgirgpa into tfle story of the handicapped intelligence of our species, blundering heavily towards tire realisation and 'handling of vast changes and still vaster dangers and opportunities. My mother becomes a fiyiiflion pi-others and ray brothers a 'C-ountless brothqrhp-,qfj. iVly life Is a sample life and not an 'except-lopa'l one.’’ "

The book then is in ithe first place a (social study, Showing flflie erpirpnment and upbringing of a flqy b'orp. of poor parents in the town of Bromley in Kent in 1866; and fl-rpm this point' of 'view the aifthßp lias mil'Ph to say 'about 'the prevailing educational and economic system. -Secondly it is a record of 'intellectual as wie'll as -material achievement, the 'unfolding of a philosophy and not merely -of a career: and here we have his gradually developing views -on politics' and religion. It is in -shqrt a ijjp-qk of i-dpas and not of gossip; and consequently worth reading.

In one sense the story (s familiar enough; it Is -the -story "of the selfmade man. Mr Wells was genuinely handicapped by his early poverty, and he really has worked hard to achieve his .present Income and position. Rut, unlike most -self-made men, he reair isag, first, that luck had as much (to do with 'his -success as ability; and secondly that the continual struggle was bad for him, -that It developed his worst 'qualities. “In a social order where all the good things go to those who iconstitut-Fona'ldy and necessarily watch, grab and clutch all the time, the quality of my father, the rich humour end! imagination of ray brother Frank, were shoved out of play and wasted altogether. In a world of 'competitive acquisitiveness the -natural lot of my (sort of people is to be hustled out of existence by the smartles and -pushers.” That Is one of -the book's main themes. Mr Wells (taught in'the school where Lord Nortbcljffe had been educated. The school was rotten with the competitive Individualism of that tand this) day; It gave its pupils no sense of social responsibility, no hint that 'life was anything tout "a keen but merciful prize competition, in which ‘sheer hard work’ was ‘the magician’s wand,’ and so forth and so -on." It was its own fault and that of the -society that encouraged it that it should have produced a Northcliffe, a man who set out to make -money and found himself (recklessly'’ and harmfully) moulding civilisation. 'That is a specimen of Mr Wells’ biographical manner. He is not content to record anecdotes about the celebrities whom he has met: he wants to know their significance, just how they fit into .their background. “The urgency for coherence and 'consistency, the repugnance from haphazard assumptions arid arbitrary 'statements, Is,” he says, “the essential distinction of the educated from the uneducated mind.” This is -the autobiography of an educated mind. The present volume takes us <up to 1894; if the secopd volume is as good, Mr Wells has written (even if he 'has not flved) a model •‘life.” —D.H.M.

THE POST-WAR PEEP-SHOW.

Presenting a Tragedy. ‘<A PIN TO SEE THIE PEEPSHOW," by Tennyson Jesse (He|nemann), This is a remarkable story ef a girl, Julia Almond, Whoso love of life, an'd Hie good things of life, and hatred of tier middle-class station aivdi environment, lead her ip embark on adventures Which, although they lead ultimately'to success' in a business; career, end tragically in death at the 'executioner’s hand. Julia, determined to escape from the suffocation of life in a nviddle-ciass villa with dull uninteresting parents, accepts a position as apprentice to a modiste in London. Then, simultaneously, come the war, and the death of Julia’s father; and when the privacy of 2 Beresfodd Street, 'the home of the Almonds, is invaded by Julia's Uncle George and his family, Julia seizes the only avenue of escape, and marries Herbert Starling, a very dull widower whom she does not love.

With Hie end of 'the war and the return of Herbert to London and married life at St. Clement’s Square trouble begins. Julia falls in love with Leonard Garr, Herbert refuses lo divorce Julia, and finally Leo and Julia are both arrested and. tried for the murder of Herbert St aiding. The sentence of the Court is death for both, and very vivid and forceful accounts arc given of the ‘trial and the last days of Julia Starling and Leo Garr.

Both Julia and Leo are entirely without moral sense; il is .difficult, lo imagine how anyone could disregard so .completely the .claims of the people among whom tie lives as does Leonard Garr; while Julia overrides anyone ami anything to •satisfy her own desires; yet we cannot help thinking that, given a proper environment an'di a less vivid imagination Julia might have developed into a floe woman. —IS.MAY.