The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-29
4 study Of u. q. Wells.

III tne Nrlters OF the Day series,
published by Messrs. Henry Holt and
Company, J. ID. BEREsFoRD publishes a
scanty and very superficial study Of
III. G.. Wells. The first division (one
can hardly call the small six pages a
chapter) Mr.. Beresford calls THE
Normality of Mr.. Wells" II to any
one normality carries the significance
OF average health. ability to live and
see n act as others do. then this
first division should have been headed
THE Abnorunality OF Mr.. Wells" 1t
opens up with a paragraph retelling
Mr.. Shaw's chuckling delight when
the oculist told him that he had per-
fectly normal eyesight; hat his sight
reeded no correction by glasses. but
that with the naked eye he saw just
what average men saw. The remark
able thing about Mr.. Wells is that he
sees the world with as fresh and I'M
trammelled an eye as II he had just
descended from the moon. lie has
absolutely no background. no preju-
dices. NJ traditions. The average
child born in the average home, for
example. grows up with al innate
prejudice in favor of the marriage OF
parents, If only because this fact is
sc usual. Not so Mr.. Wells. He looks
at monogamic marriage as ii obtains
in our world of to-day. and seeing
that il has its many imperfections ana
limitations. he Immediately questions
the scheme of things entire Mr..
Chesterton regretted that George Ber-
nard Shaw had never been a happy
little hoy in "A happy home where they
! ung up their stockings at Christmas,
lecause such an experience in early
youth tinges an entire outlook upon
such widespreading questions as home
life. the validity OF the family as the
unit in the State, monoI amy, &c.
The question in view Il the present
book Is whether so unusual eN-
ceptional a childhood as that OF Mr..
Wells does or does not endow a man
with the normal historic sense. Mr..
Beresford thinks il does. He therefore
makes his own definition of normal"
Normal sight, he tells us, is the en-
dowment of a few happy mortals here
and there who have no need for the
physical assistance of glasses. in order
TO see as other men see. and whose
mental outlook is undistorted by tradi-
ton, prejudice or some sort OF bias"
The number of such people, he con-
tinues. IL so small that We regard them
as criminal or inspired, according TO
the inclination Of our own beloved pre-
objection. 1t is futile to discuss here
whether OF not a just and true his
torlc sense energies from a person
who is, as it were, in history, a part
80 ~ xyith .NarN thra 90 hty hntn~ I.,,
ing and hating because all events
drive home to him, or a totally de-
taChed human being without affec-
tiOns, likings or dislikings, who views
the course of events as unrelated to
himself. We are entirely willing to
accord to Mr.. BeresfOrd the fact that
MIR, Weiss best gift to us is the de-
taChed, unprecedented eye with which
he has looked at modern life and un-
erringly pointed out its flaws. Might
he not. however, have had n more
wClghty historic sense and n juster
social sense If he had realized that
most human institutions, including
among them monogamy, are built up
as safeguards against the innate and
riotous impulses of natural man? II
does indeed add to Mr.. Weiss value
as an exponent of human limitations
that he belonged to no particular
order; that his intellect was far more
searching and powerful than any no
came in contact with in early youth.
and that in consequence he was able
to set down for what it is worth a
purely individualistic Interpretation of
human life.
y minimum of biography is given
in the n hundred pages of this
slight essay; not nearly SO much. for
example, as is found in the first third
uf "Tono-l}ungay," This essay merely
motions that Mr., Wells was the son
of Mr.. and Mrs, Joseph Wells; the
former was an able crickcter, and
Mrs. Wells was the daughter of an
innkcepor at Midhurst and was later
in service IA Il lady's maid, and stin
later as n h"ousekccper. Mr.. Wells,
the author, after "A minimum of edu-
cation, became assistant in "A small
drapery shop, Here he qualified him
self for the post OF assistant at the
Midhurst Grammar School, and then
won "A scholarship at the Normal
School of Science, South kensington,
passing on to an assistant mastership
at Henley House School, st. Johns
Wood, and so coming by way of tutor,
lecturer. demonstrators 20 the begin