Evening star., 1938-12-15
BY H. G. WELLS.
Chapter v.
Guidance Rejected.

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for Z week or so and even then at
tempted nothing so elaborate as
his first outbreak; his instinct told
him that a second grafton in the
same term would not do; he wrote
nothing but lecture notes, gave four
~ hours day grimly, but with watch
on his desk, to textbooks, and talked
with the utmost discretion. He felt
that something very important had
happened in his life and he did not
quite know what. In such brief
leisure as his steadfast pursuit of
good degree permitted him, he
would catch himself dreaming over
a gazetteer and an atlas, or reading
books about Napoleon and Hitler
and Mussolini. Or simply he dreamt
and schemed. If he could move
people once, he could move them
again. ...
He did his best to control those
extravagant reveries. For they went
even beyond the range of his school,
boy battledreams.
People made his acquaintance now
almost with an effect of seeking
him. This did much to confirm
his newborn sense of his own value.
If there was something they valued
In him, then he would be fool to
give 1t away. OF course, these re-
veries were reveries, but for all that
there might be something in them.
He could not help posing a little.
He regarded his various visitors
foi, ccin
hands behind his back, replied with
out committing himself to anything
and summed them up one after
another in his own mind.
Persuasive Power.
The latest thing in religion pre-
sented itself one afternoon in the
passion of man too old for an
undergraduate and too oily and
shiny for don, a queer fish with a
slightly American accent. He had
called, he said, and stopped. Whit
low thought he might be canvas
ser. But he was much too rich and
SNUG looking for that.
II heard your speech" resumed
the intruder. You have, what shall
call it?-mental energy. You have
persuasive power-oh-great per-
suasive power. There was some
thing contagious in your indignation.
feel it imperative upon me to i'm
plore you not to waste these gifts"
IT have my IDEAS" said Rudolf
"What do you suggest?"
Where do they take you?"
Nowhere yet. I asked you what
do you suggest?"
Have you guidance?"
Tell me about it."
The visitor wanted to walk about
the room. He had played for the
hearthrug but Rude had got that.
DO sit down." said Rudie. I'm that
chair there, the low one. No, I
cannot listen to you If I have to
keep on watching you moving
around. 1t distracts me. What
is this guidance?"
Guidance" said the visitor, sink
ing into his chair. Just that"
Rude replied with an uncivil
monosyllable.
The missioner was spurred to ex-
position. You don't know" he said.
I'm asking YOU
LET me illustrate"
"I'm attending"
Ramble Good Deal.
The illustrations rambled a good
deal. Rude listened with a lower
ing expression that hampered the
teller. He spoke Of the fear and
uncertainty in 50 many lives now
adays, the constant struggle against
sinful impulses and of suicidal mo-
ments.
Presently he brought the inter-
view to an end. 1t was a sudden in
spiration that came to him.
When his oak closed on the in
truder, Rudie's stern face relaxed
into q delightful grin. His mature
earnestness fell from him like a
mask. He stuck out his tongue at
the door and then put his thumb to
his nose and spread out his fingers
in twiddling triumph. THAT for
you and your guidance" he said.
By which 1t is manifest that he
was still only very partially grown
up.
That was the only approach made
by any sort Of religious organization
to Our emergent young man. What
ever other forms of faith fourished
at Camford were apparently under
the impression that Rudie might
Just as we'll be damned. But various
politicians of a markedly Junior"
character inquired about him. They
waylaid him in stony corridors;
they accosted him in the reading
room; they came to his room.
There were Liberals who just talked
party politics of the most arithmeti-
cal sort and failed to pass quite
elementary examinations on what
they meant by liberal principles;
there were rather beefy conserva-
tives, one of them titled, with an ILL
concealed quality of condescension,
who seemed to regard the Empire
ax / sort of alluring Juggernaut to
whom one would naturally and
gladly PROSTATE oneself; there were
shrill Indians who tried to win his
respectful adhesion to their dusky
cause, by proving with chapter and
verse that the English were cheats,
liars, oppressors and only tempo
rarily necessary to India; there
were Pacifists some Of whom were
total abstainers from life, neo-
gnostics in fact, while others seemed
to make an exception in favor of
serious eroticism.
= Middle Class Fabians.
And there were middle-class Fa-
bians. those painless permeators,
with schemes for expropriating the
rich and powerful so subtly that
they would never know it had hap
pened to them, and various leftists,
Stalinists, Trotskyites and so forth,
including several earnest young
peers, who agreed that what was
needed was vehement class war
and a proletarian revolution.