The Washington times., 1917-07-17
Don Marquis
Column
Mr.. wells and HIS New God.

the advent of q new unoerstanotngp
which has mo church, no authorities,
70 teachers, no orthodoxy" But 1t Is
Eot so easy for belief TO escape au-
;aority and teachers and orthodoxy,
whether It is called a new under
landing" or an association or q
hurch. And the orthodoxy OF the
new understanding"-the belief that
,dll shortly claim the world. Mr..
Wells assures us, is, very briefly:
There is a True God, who is not an
Infinite being, but a limited and finite
ne. This True God Is not the creator
q the universe, but q distinct per-
onality dwelling therein. This True
Tod is a God of love; he helps man
nd is helped by man. But. back
tt this True God. superior to this
rue God in point Of power, is what
Ir. Wells calls Yelled Being. OF
tae relationship OF the True God to
the Yelled Being. Mr.. Wells does not
retend to know anything. He says:
AT the back Of all known things there is
tmpenetrable curtain: tho ultimate Of sx-
tence Il 4 Yelled Being, which seems to
know nothing Of life death or good " IN
&c that Being. vhether 4 n simple or conl-
- r.ore than the limit Of understanding, the
lEnown beyond. II may be OF practically
l-nitloss intricacy and possibility. The new
,ngion does not pretend that the God Of Its
lie q that Being, or that he hAs any relation
control or association with that Being. u
oes not even assert that God knows all or
Icing" r-----
Mr.. Wells rejects TrlnitArianism
with some heat OF seorn) and warns
Us against confusing the being whom
lie calls the, True God with Christ
3,ut, with his Yelled Being and his
rue God, he presents q dualistic idea
that is likely, we should think. to
discourage and perplex just the same
type Of mind that hnds Trinitarianism
t'iffcult to accept. With regard to
the Yelled Being, Mr.. Wells remains
frankly agnostic; It Is for the True
cod, the finite and personal deity,
hat he vehe -aently solicits our belief.
Indeed, after q few references to the
Yelled Being, references almost casual,
he drops this Yelled Being altogether.
And, turning, as he wishes, from
his agnosticism, which wells so large
9 portion OF his universe, to the faith
that claims the nnite remnant OF his
COSMOS, let us examine the character
of Mr.. Wells True God. II is in his
talk about the True God that we md
the man himself rather than In his
oosmographic dogmas: and 1t Is in
-teresting to watch the motions Of his
Gctive mind as 1t grapples with the
painful task of creating out Of itself
its own orthodoxy.
The prophet epitonizes and incar-
a. - a. ~ ha
lives 10 his clan god made in his
own image. Any god or demi-god or
oxtra-human hero who Is defined
land defined to some extent q god
must be II his prophets are to get
him accepted by men)-necessartly
takes on something of the color and
character OF his interpreter; reveals
that tribal personality which created
the prophet and made the prophet
create the god. Mr.. Wells Is q prophet,
and the god whom he announces Is,
without his being aware OF II, very
British. He reminds us irresistably Of
Tennyson's King Arthur in the
'TdyIls OF the King" We do not say
It in disrespect Of Mr.. Wells or his
tribe or his deity; II is merely that
II is useful to the person of religious
bias to try sincerely to understand
Just how the conceptions Of other re-
ligious persons came into existence;
our speculations are governed by a
reverence for the honest beliefs Of all
men
Mr.. Wells finite god, we say,
wakens in US recollections OF Tenny-
sons very pious hero, Arthur. But
he is, perhaps, in some OF his aspects,
more like Tennyson's Galahad- Is not
this passage, in which Mr.. Wells
yields to the temptation to suggest q
possible flgure for his god, somewhat
Tennysonian, altogether English and
quite the figure OF Galahad?
..But the God Of this new age. we repeat:
looks not to our past, but 70 our future. ano
n a nFure may represent him It must Be the
figure OF q beautiful youth, Already brave ana
wise but hardly come to his strength he
should stand lightly on his feet In the morn
Ing time, eager to so forward, as though he
had but newly arisen TO . day that was sun
but a promise; he should bear = sword. that
clean, discriminating weapon, his eyes should
Snart WITH eaEerness for the great adventure
before him and he should Be In very fresh
and golden harness rejecting the rising sun:
banks and shadows In the valleys Of the wide
landscape about him. There should Be dew
upon the threads Of EosHamer and ltNle leaves
and blades Of the turf At bis feet
And, may we not add without Of
fense, that this bright, agreeable ex-
ternalization would Gave lent itself
admirably to the brush Of that Mr..
Watts, the Royal Academician, who
did SO much toward making one Of
Mr.. Browning,s poems popular IN the
last century,
Some one has said that IN middle
age a man returns to the tribe"
The rebel becomes conformist. But,
when a man has been used to thinking
of himself as radical for many years,
the fact of his entrance into the con-
servative camp may sometimes escape
his own notice. It seems to US that
Mr.. Wells cosmogony is merely a
variation OF something exceedingly
ancient, and that the smack and flavor
of his new gods personality Is very.
very national. Il Is possible that, In
stead Of heralding new deity and
a new religion he is proelaiming a
tribal hero essentially old under a
new nomenclature, having gone back
70 the clan without being aware OF
&. The tribe, for the most part, will
not Immediately perceive Il. either:
Journalists OF a dozen different per
sussions will probably lambast him.
But TO discover these racial and In
stinctive phenomena In his religious
conception is not to deny that he has
20 his