NATURE 



193 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1904. 



THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

 (i) Mankind in the Making. Pp. viii + 429. Price 

 ys. 6d. (2) .iiiticipalions. Pp. 122. Price 6d. 

 (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1903.) (3) The 

 Food of the Gods. Pp. 317. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 6s. By H. G. Wells. 



MR. WELLS is a man of imagination, and he 

 has let his imaginative faculty play about the 

 ^rcat problems that obtrude themselves when we con- 

 template the new conditions under which civilised man 

 is now living, conditions which must inevitably under- 

 go further change as science aidvances. Three books 

 of his more especially claim to forecast the future 

 of our race, and to lay down the lines on which 

 ■education should proceed. These three are " Antici- 

 pations," a very bold attempt to peer into the future; 

 "The Food of the Gods," a lively romance full of 

 humour that does not pall from beginning to end of 

 the book; and "Mankind in the Making," a series 

 of essays dealing mainly with education, and advo- 

 cating radical changes in our methods. 



As to style, Mr. Wells is a hard hitter. He pounds 

 at all classes or professions or trades which fall below 

 his standard of efficiency, or who represent, as he 

 thinks, mouldering ideas and systems. He cannot 

 talk patiently of bishops, schoolmasters, army men or 

 plumbers. His philosophy has had its origin in the 

 theory of evolution. He looks at the race of men in 

 the past, the present, and the future, and he sees a 

 long series of births. The individual is trustee for 

 the race of the principle of life. The idea of this 

 trusteeship is to Mr. Wells a great and ennobling one. 

 .\ man must not look upon his individual life as the 

 -iill-important thing, but must find his true happiness 

 in the propagation and education of offspring. Never- 

 theless, we find in " Anticipations " that this ideal will 

 be shared only by a limited number of people. In the 

 world he pictures are many childless ludnages, and 

 Mr. Wells himself is prepared to tolerate relaxation 

 of the marriage law and even " sterile gratification." 

 But in this new world there will be also many men 

 of strenuous earnestness and of religious purpose, 

 though not professing a definitely Christian faith, who 

 will be the leading spirits. As a rule they will be 

 fathers of families, for the childless manages will not 

 fit in with their theory of things. 



These men of energy — men of science, engineers, 

 doctors, and so forth — will shape policy and adminis- 

 tration. The result will be marvellous efficiency, such 

 as is rarely if ever seen now. There will be no king. 

 Monarchy will have given place to the New Republic. 

 Royalty is connected with all things out of date, with 

 aristocratic privileges, ridiculous costumes and decor- 

 ations. Therefore it must go. In the New Republic, 

 though so efficiently managed, there will be many 

 idlers. There will be an enormous development of 

 irresponsible wealth, great numbers of people living 

 on invested money, having no cares of management 

 and no duties in connection with their property. It 

 is among this class mainly that will be found the child- 

 NO. 1835, VOL. 71] 



less manages. The class that supplies unskilled 

 labour, the old servile class, will tend to disappear. 

 The invention of machines capable of performing 

 more cheaply all the work that has hitherto fallen to 

 the unskilled will make such men unnecessary. 

 Peasant pi-oprietors and all small land-holders must 

 pass away. They represent stagnation, and there is 

 room only for go-ahead, adaptable people. Those who 

 fail to adapt themselves will fall into the abyss, the 

 great sink in which wallow all those who are unfitted 

 for the new conditions. The people of the abyss are 

 to be encouraged to e.xtinguish' themselves, to 

 practise what would commonly be called vice without 

 offspring resulting. 



Mr. Wells is quite alive to the need of an antiseptic 

 in a wealthy society such as he foresees. To keep 

 down e.xcessive accumulations of wealth he proposes 

 heavy death duties, and heavy graduated duties upon 

 irresponsible incomes, " with, perhaps, in addition, 

 a system of terminable liability for borrowers." But 

 besides this there will be at work for many years to 

 come " that most stern and educational of all masters 

 — war." In its methods war will be verv unlike any- 

 thing of which we have as yet had experience. There 

 will be marksmen few in number, but possessed of 

 skill altogether beyond that of the marksmen of to- 

 day. The army will no longer be officered by men 

 too stupid and indifferent to use properly the inven- 

 tions of science. No masses of raw, unskilled lads 

 will be driven on to the slaughter. 



Some greater synthesis will emerge. Mr. Wells 

 reviews the various large groups of peoples which 

 make up the greater part of the population of the 

 earth. There is the Russian group, the German, 

 Latin, and English groups, and there are the Yellow 

 Races. Mr. Wells does not think the Russian or the 

 German likely to predominate. In the French he has 

 a great belief, though they do not " breed like 

 rabbits." The richness and power of their literature 

 make him think their language will extend itself far. 

 He laments the comparative poverty and meagreness 

 of our literature. Still, he inclines to the belief that 

 a great dominant synthesis of the English-speaking 

 peoples may be formed. Germany will be cowed by 

 the combined English and American Navies, and 

 Anglo-Saxonism will eventually triumph. 



There remain the Yellow Races. Their star, too, 

 will pale before that of the Anglo-Saxons. But all 

 syntheses, however great, will eventually fuse into 

 one. There will be a World State, and rival nation- 

 alities will be a thing of the past. " Against these 

 old isolations, these obsolescent particularisms, the 

 forces of mechanical and scientific development fight 

 and fight irresistibly." 



.All these speculations are very interesting reading, 

 but we cannot help regretting that Mr. Wells did not 

 study and reflect a little longer before writing. His 

 imagination, unclogged by knowledge, is apt to run 

 away with him. Though he expresses the greatest 

 reverence for Darwin and his successors, he does not 

 show a very thorough grip of the principles of evolu- 

 tion. To begii\ with, he seems unaware of the part 

 in the national life that is played by the lower stratum 



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