A Modern Utopia

Abstract

IT is instructive to watch the growth, both in power and in hopefulness, of Mr. Wells's criticism of life. In the “Time Machine” his forecast of the future of humanity was frankly appalling; in “When the Sleeper Wakes,” more lurid (albeit far more probable) than the worst imaginings of “reforming” socialists. “Anticipations” was a most stimulating book, but so deliberately confined itself to exalting and exaggerating the prospects of a single aspect of life, so exclusively devoted itself to glorifying mechanical and material progress, that those sensitive to our spiritual and aesthetic possibilities might be pardoned for regarding the present order, with all its cruelty, waste, sordidness, and grotesqueness, as a golden age in comparison with Mr. Wells's world. “Mankind in the Making” contained much vigorous criticism and many sensible and practical suggestions. In the present book Mr. Wells has become still more moderate and practicable and hopeful, without in the least derogating. from his ingenuity and originality. We sincerely hope, therefore, he will not, as he threatens, stick henceforth to his “art or trade of imaginative writing,” but will continue from time to time to regale and stimulate us with sociological speculations.

A Modern Utopia.

By H. G. Wells. Pp. xi + 393. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price 7s. 6d.