Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-12-12

SHOW lHt lltTutE Ill WulCu ht hoo
handled his characters, manner which
ought to be convincing, but In many
instances is far from It.
There arc norels rith aud rith-
out plots. and the big ones, chethcr
they hare u plot or not, are all iH-
tcrcSting and uorth rhile.
WHETHER there Is a plot to his
w tory is question upon which men
have disputed for centuries. Philos-
ophcrs have exhausted their imagina-
tions in discussing 1t and theologians
have sought by appeal to authority to
establish the proposition that there Is Il
rurpose back of it all. MIR. Wells has
a plot, the outcome Of which does not
yet appear. for the story is not yet fin
ishCd. But il IS q plot with evolution
as its motive and he finds evidence
that events have been tending in the
same general direction since the proto-
pnsm emerged from the primeval silt.
What its purpose is he does not pre-
tend to say. The best that the theo-
logians have been able to say Is that
its purpose is to glorify the Creator OF
all things, rs though Omnirotent Power
could get qualification out of the lauda-
ton of such ephemeridae as men.
Henry Adams. who was Il man o'
considerable philosophic insight, devoted
himself for several years to an effort TO
find out plot. but he gave up in
disgust, for he could find no purpose
in the rise and fall Of nations, or in
the plaques and massacres which peri
odically wiped out thousands Of lives.
And even the evolutionary theory was
unsatisfactory and ihconclusivc, for he
saw about him living creatures identical
with fossil remains found in the Oldest
rocks. If living creature had brought
forth after its kind without change for
hundreds of thousands Of years, what
justitication. he asked. was there for
the assumption that other living crea-
lures had brought forth after different
kinds until an intelligent. articulatc
man was propagated?
II would be presumptuous in me &c
attempt to answer this question or &c
dogmatI2e about the plot of the story
Of life on the earth of which Man is
the hero. am only pointing out that
Mr.. Wells conception Of the plot OF
the tale is not universally accepted as
correct.
/ There is an excuse for Mr.. Wells
however. for he is not content will
watching the course of events. he
seeks to influence it and to divert it in
the direction which he in his infinite
confidence in his own wisdom thinks il
best So in his concluding chapters h'
suggests what ought to be the denoue'
ment Of his great tale: or If not the de-
nouement, at least the next step IN th'
development of the plot. Those IA
miliar with his sociological views cal
guess what it Is.
To summarize. it must be said tina
this novel is sketchy. No sooner Il
A character introduced than he IL dis
missed. If the reader knows the stor.
in advance he can get some idea OF VIVA
il is all about. These faults are inevi
table in any work which attempts L
cover SO much ground, You cant tel
Il comprehensive story of what has hap
pcuel in 5000 900 900 years within tn
spacc Of 40 pages, even If you com
prcss the story Of the first oo.ooI.oO'
wears in the first fifty pages. Ih
wonder is that the novelist has sue
cecdcd so we'll.
GEORGE W. DOUGLAS.