The Washington times., 1902-01-26

LONDON, Jan 25.-Mr H. G. Wells.
the scientific novelist, who ut-Darwins
bis. master, Darwin, and dares to direct
a confident gaze upon feature still aeons
distant, delivered lecture at the Royal
| Institute last night on Discovery of the
Future
Knowledge of the Future.
This did not mean an aerial fight or
any single development Of science, but
! discovery of the future as a whole. Along
certain lines, with certain limitations.
| he argted that n working knowledge CT
the things of the future was practicable
! and possible. AS during the last century
the amazing searchlight of inference had
( been passed into the remoter past, so by
! seeking for operating causes instead Of
+ for fossils, the searchlight of inference
might be thrown into the future.
! \ Simple Problem.
The man of science would believe at
! last that events in a. d.. 1000 were hxed.
settled. and unehangeable as those of
! a. D. 1860, with the exception of the
! affairs of man and his children.
1t is as simple and sure to work out
the charging orbit of the earth in future,
until the tidal drag hauls one unchanging
/ face at last toward the sun. as it is to
work back to its blazing, molten past.
! 1t might be argued that man, in
| dividually and collectively, was an in
/ calculabe factor. new element opposing
/ the nature of the enquiry and stamping
| l. as vain and hopeless, but Mr. Wells
seemed to favor the idea that man.
though complicating, did not alter the
| essential nature of induction.
Leading Men Not Factors.
He did rot believe in the Importance
of the leading man. and he confessed to
belief that if by some juggling with
space and time Caesar, Napoleon. Will
liam the Conqueror. and other great in
dividualities had been changed at birth,
il would not have produced any serious
dislocation of the course of destiny.
Great men were no more than images
and symbols and instruments taken at
haphazafd by the incessant, consistent
forces behind them. They were the PEN
nibs which Fate used in her writing, and
the more one was inclined to trust the
forces behind individuals the more one
could believe in the possibility of a rea-
soned inductive view of the future that
would serve US in politics, morals, social
contrivances and in a thousand specious
ways.
What After Mnn.
A deliberate direction of historical,
economic. and social study toward the fu-
ture and a deliberate and courageous ref
erence to the future in moral and relig-
ious discussion would be enormously
stimulating and profitable to the intel
lectual life.
That man is not final is a great and
disturbing fact in scientific discovery in
the future. and in the question What is
to come after man? is the most persis-
tently fascinating insoluble question in
the world
In the Near Future.
But for the near future some few gen.
erel statements have grown more GER
tain. Two years ago it was an irresponsi-
BILE suggestion. but now it was the COM
monplace remark of Cabinet Ministers
that our dense populations were in the
opening phase of the process of the dif-
fusion of aeration; secondly, it was inevi-
table that the mass of the white popu-
lation of the world would be forced in
some way up the scale OF efficiency with
in two Or three decades; thirdly, reasons
had been collected showing that in the
comparative near future humanity would
definitely and consciously organize itself
into a great world state. and purge itself
OF much that is mean and bestial and
dreary in this world.
Creatures of Twilight,
The lecturer asked why should things
cease at man; no creatures lived under
changing conditions without undergoing
changes. Human society, he said, was
never static. and would presently cease
in its attempt to be static. Mr. Wells de-
cIared:
We are at the beginning of the great
est change that humanity has ever under
gone. There will be no shock, as there is
no shock at cloudy daybreak. We are
creatures of twilight. but out of our
minds and the lineage of our minds will
spring minds that will reach forward
fearlessly. y day will come--one day in
the unending succession of days-when
the beings now latent in our thoughts.
hidden in our loins. shall stand on this
earth as one stands on a footstool. and
they shall laugh and reach out their hands
among the stars"
Much Interest Aroused.
In the crowded assembly that listened,
interested. and enthusiastic, were DR.. De-
war, Sir William Crooks, Prof. Arm
strong. Lord Rayleigh, and Sir Frederick
Bramwell. The lecture has already
aroused widespread interest, and will
probably be much discussed.