Evening star., 1924-09-23
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE DREAM. H. G. Wells. The
Macmillan Company,

iToEreSS comes, so we are told,
through the discontents of man. This
one or that one, so the story runs.
both dissatisfied and unsatisfied with
the little handful of toys granted
MN by life, begins. restlessIy, to re-
assort and rearrange them By acct
dent usually, by design upon rare oc-
casion, he hits upon a. new combina-
tion In his meager store, one that
oners some use or some beauty
hitherto undiscovered. And a little
halting step forward is made in the
huge stagger performance that is
called progress. 1t is the discontents,
therefore, who. according to this story.
are the accredited sponsors of an in
creaslnS civilization. And these stand
out by name and date in every field
Letters, as we'll as industry; the arts,
no less than politics and government
present advocates Of advance, all cry
ing for better world. each to the
measure Of his power seeking to
achieve it.
Among the writer's, the current
considerable writers. II. G.. Wells
stands in this particular the prince of
propagandists, the prime minister of
some modern political Utopia, the
oracle of "A dream brought to earth
and set, usually, in a future so dis
tant as to give flattering credence to
the theory of human perfectibility.
More than half a hundred books bear
witness to the enviable mental ac-
tivity of Mr.. Wells, to his vision and
the courage of it's pursuit to an ad-
venturer's range of enterprise and
daring, to the industry that, finally
obJectifies these mental and spiritual
forceS. setting them to current drama
for Immediate and vital attack upon
the substance of modern thought and
purpose. And these books-novels.
fanc1ful Inventions, short stories,
sober discussions of religion, politics,
economies, the great Outline" itself
all in one way or another bear upon
the need for mans conscious and de-
llberate progress toward an infinitely
better state than his present one. AL
legory, fable. fantasy, satire-these
supplement- the more solid program
of plain statement and the sequences
of logic. Uneven work, in its bulk
some Of 1t tremendously important
and impressive. Some of it lighter in
texture, almost negligible by contrast
1t is in these lesser moments that
Mr.. Wells casts for himself the role
OF omnipotence absorbed in the bust
ness of creating new worlds out of
the shreds and patches of our pres
ent shabby existence, turning these
OH TO ht his vision of human society
as II ought to be, as. in accord with
his faith. il is ultimately bound to be
1t is in these acts of creation that Mr.
Wells is less than his best. One must
have a prodigious sense Of humor to
turn himself into a god and get away
with it. Mr.. Wells has no humor. He
is at heart a reformer And the one
human power which a reformer can
not possibly possess is that of laugh
ter turned upon himself in his pre-
occupation of making bad folks over
into good ones.
The Dream" suggests that in its
making Mr.. Wells may have taken
a trick from the movies. BY a device
familiar to that art he is enabled
not only to present his text and
preach his sermon on beautiful
world beyond our own, but it is per-
mitted besides to develop as com
ponent part of this message a plain
Iy believable tale-an earth bound
story Of the present. A tri1e sketchy
that other world, as it would be- set
1000 years ahead of us. But we
know, in an instant. that we are in
one of Mr.. Wells worlds, for nobody
is wearing clothes and there love
flows free of the pesky inhibitions
that so bedevil society on the present
plane of existence. The deniZenS of
this new world-those whom we meet
are a group of men and women
Sarnac, Sunray, Radiant, Starlight
Willow, Firefiy. Yes. men and women,
despite their negative namings
These are grouped in pleasant cir
cumstance around Sarnac, who is tell
ing to them his dream. And his dream
is the story. These demi-angels of a
new heaven are but a point of van
tage from which to see and wonder
over and comment upon the sad do
ings of this hard world after its long.
long experience in the business of
being human. They, in their setting,
give the bright contrast to our pres
ent 1t is by way of this contrast
that Mr.. Wells delivers his vision of
a simpler and larger humanity
The dream of Sarnac, so vivid at
every point, SO linked throughout as
to re-embody an individual life. is
the story of Henry Mortimer Smith,
lower class English youth of the
period of the great war. The in
cidents of young Smiths life, faith
full in every detail, pass screen-Iike
in review to give to the listeners some
adequate view of that far past which
is our present. The story itself-the
substance of Sarnac's dream-is pure
realism. 1t must needs be this since
Its purpose is to provide this new
group living in new world the
justification and joy of its existence.
The dull boyhood Of Smith in A poor
and pious household, the family ieal-
ousieS and chickering's, the detection
of his beautiful sister and her flight
into a sinful but more beautiful life
the boys own out-reach for room to
grow. his love for Hetty and her
faithleSSneSS under war strain di-
vorce, re-marriage, prosperity-the
sudden death by a pistol shot from
Hetty's other husband. these are the
stages in the life of one man set
down in the common complex of
family, friends, work, success or
folds so faithfully.
+
The dream is finished. The story
is told. 1t serves more than a single
purpose Primarily, it throws into
the high light of sharp contrast with
that future world much of the un-
wisdom of the present one-its fndi-
vidual preoccupation with self out OF
which grows the modern madness for
money and place and things and more
things; out of which grows bitter
cruelty both toward ones fellow
men and toward the helpless animal
world as well; out of which grows a
hard chastity that sits in pltiless
judgment upon the many weaknesses
of the flesh; out of which grows a
neglect of beauty in both nature and
art. All of these false growths Gull
minating in silly or vicious laws and
in governments that are impotent
and represSive
Having thus again fulfilled his
mission of projecting a brighter fu-
ture, Mr.. Wells must feel an addi-