ABSTRACT
Mr. H. G. Wells illustrates the old paradox of the revival of learning. Mr. Wells has had the benefit of Victorian optimism, and he has grafted the theory of inevitable human progress on to the older obsession with the cyclical history of an inevitable rise and fall. For Mr. Wells, Progress is the dogmatic certainty that is sufficient to motivate all human actions, and Technology is the instrument by which Progress is to be made effective. The principles in which Mr. Wells believes have repeatedly failed in the course of the past century to secure anything like human solidarity even with the limited area of Europe. Wells finds one motive and one only for adherence to the World State—the need for human solidarity; and only one human capacity to be used as an instrument in establishing this solidarity—man's power to exploit and manipulate nature.
