The Washington herald., 1920-11-06
right; he will grow daily more and more
rght-carlyle.
The Falible, Partisan MIR. Wells.

Now that H. C. Wells tour de force is off the
press and to be had by buyers with sufficient ucrc
is being subjected to the critics scalpes For the
ambition OF the man, for his nerve-so to speak-in
-Fenturing write universal history" that ranges
from times nebulous and prehistoric down to the
latest clash between Lloyd George and English
labor there is nothing but admiration. Moreover,
it is freely admitted that he has used the art which
he Minister'S in making his novels readable, to good
adyareage a historian. The narrative and the
cons1ent have color and He is of the
schocf OF Macaulay, Froude and Green and not OF
the Stubbs type. He has left the making of foot
notes yarsely to his admirable assistants, and char
acterisA caily given them liberty to produce evidence
challenging his text Not for him the Germanized,
doctors yhesis sort of history. He is not aiming
at the scholastic few but at the unniaginative
informed many who need to the progress of
the race in terms OF life adorned with ideals, good
or bad, but vet adorned.
1t is when the critics come to deal with the
judicial quality of his work that they find most
to condemn. His contemporary standards, and
those largely personal and Wellsian, control him
excessively when he to pass judgment on
the past He never has learned that truth about
the writing of history which Lord Acton so finely
stated-namely, that actors the worlds stage
cannot be fairly judged as to their conduct in
the light of the ethical and political standards OF
their own time their own land, and not those
OF the historians day nationality
IT, as in Mr.. Wells case, his partisanship and
fallfbty increase, in exact ratio of the proximity
of the man or the party he is judging to 1919,
when nc wrote most of his book, it only indicates
anew the difficulty inherent In an judgment OF men
and peoples due to personal interest and party at
tachncut, Mscaulay wrote Wing history brilliantly
and persuasivey, but it was Wing history. Treit-
srhkC wrote Bismarckian and PrlRsian hopes into
his chronicle: and you cannot find contemporary
European or American Socialist appraiser of the
history OF the days since Marx who is not either
hagrantIy or subtly influenced by the creed OF
-eccnouic determinism." Today the world cries
OUT desperately for someone to write the Russia
OF Lcninc and Tkotsky who is not class-conscious
ard can tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth.
No one who ever had reflected on the theory
,of the use OF the novel which Mr.. Wells holds and
practices ever supposed for moment that he
would or could write world history that would
not be spotted with what the philosophers call the
regret that he, faced the vast task More than
EIost men living and to a very much higher degree
than any British statesman in out of power, he
has intuitve nsghts and social imagination when
facing the facts of government science and eco
nomics. He has social, scientific and political
prophecies to his credit as having been fulfilled
than any man OF letters living. Endowed with
such powers OF provision, of course much that he
says about the past is valuable.