New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-18
THE NEW KNIGHT ERRANTRY.

The NEW hNlGHi thhh' "
THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT By " g
Wells l2no. 20. 400 The Macmillan Company
Mr.. Wells is growing Increasingly
Respondent over the muidlc Of hural
affairs, the lack of purPosefuness, o.
discernment, with which they are con
Quoted. He dcspairs of democracy:
Confusion is all it can give u. II II
means anything, it means the rule OF
the painless man, the rule Of the un-
kempt mind" And socialism Is in it.
self mere eloquent gesture, inspiring.
encouraging, perhaps, but beyond that
not very helpful toward the vast prob
lem of MORAL and material readjust-
ment before the race" And, says Mr.
Wells's "homme moyen sensuel,' the
foil for his new hero:
These Big Things Of yours, no
body is thinking Of them really.
Everybody is thinking about the
Near Things that concern himself.
It's all nonsense to suppose people
think Of politics because they are
in them. Before men can think of
tomorrow, they must think OF to-
day. Before they can think OF
others, they must be sure about
themselves. First of all. food.
Then sex, and until one is tran
quill and not ashamed, not irritated
and dissatisfied, how can one care
for other people, or for next year
or for the Order Of the World?
How can one?
Leadership, then, is what is needed -
a leadership given wholly to the good,
the progress of humanity, without CON
sideration of self or distraction by its
concerns. Hence the quest Of Mr.
Weiss hero-the Research Magniti-
cent In his glimpses of Utopia our
author long ago gave US his vision o.
a Samurai class, an order of Superme1
with not the Will TO Power, but the
will to serve unselfshly through cad
ership. This is the ideal of the "aris-
tocratic life" which Mr.. Weiss hero
pursues through these pages. and II
he fails obscurely in the end, the patE
along which he has progressed is not
without its profit to the world. This
new order of knighthood of his must
make many renunciations. 1t must
train itself to courage, 1t must deny
itself the love of woman, if not OF
women. It must abjure all jealousles;
but no VOW of poverty is icqulred OF
il. On the contrary, economic indepen-
dence seems to be one OF its basic CON
ditions. All prejudices must be shed
racial, national, religious, social: the
knights are to preach and practise
new gospel of human perfection, from
which, one concludes, all permanen.
human ties are TO be excluded as oo-
stacles in the path. The Near Things
must be sacrificed for the sake OF the
realization of the Big Ones.
So Benham, the researcher magnlh-
cent, starts life with a comfortable IN
come, an ideal and an ambitious
mother. who wavers between the diplo-
matte service and Parliament in her
choice of his career. 1t is the sight OF
a gang of day laborers that crystalllzes
in his mind the possibilities or ms
wealth, but first he must see the WoI!"
and learn more of the muddle OF ne
He sees il in the Balkans, where Greeh
murders Bulgar and Bulgar assassl-
mates Seryian. a troglodytlc Ire uhoeI
the shadow of the ruins OF vahlsheu
civilization. He sees it in Russia dur
ing the revolution of 19O6-a revolu-
ton without intelligent direction or
conscious purpose beyond the mmeGl-
ate one of destruction. lie sees the
race prejudice of the Slav IN po-
qrom. and that of the jew after inc
danger has passed. He sees the mud
die of India, where caste and religious
animosities take the place or social m
tolerance. and where his quest ends IN
disgraceful fracas with squattIhS
hroyn holiness at Benares, who threw
aside hi little brass bowlful Of dinner
because Benham's shadow had fallen
unon il "'YOu uncomfortable snob,' SAID
Benham; and then, BY Heaven you
shall eat it," ,L
Il is not the only instance in when
this knight of modern service, TINS al
truistic leader loses his patience
and shows the imperious temper OF me
Superman. In China he sends his
foil. the sensual average man, 10 ms
death in a sudden access OF furious I'm
natience with his incurable self-lndulg-
ence. In America he studies the race
prejudice of the Pacific Coast, then the
more immediate one of the South, to
stand appalled, in Hayti before the
traditions of the savage tyranny OF the
Emperor Christophe. He sees the me,
chanical efficiency of Germany, and
dies at johannesburg during the labor
riots of 1914 trying to stop volley OF
the soldiery upon the strikers.
Tho total result of his quest, of his
research magnificent, is a bundle. OF
obserystions, precepts and generaliza-
ions which are embodied in this story
If his life. Mr.. Wells leaves the reader
IN doubt as 10 his own belief in the
possibility of the realization Of his