H. G. WELLS: EDUCATIONIST by F. H. DOUGHTY JONATHAN CAPE ' 30 BEDFORD SQUARE H. G. WELLS: EDUCA TIO:\lST GENERAL survey of the lines along which Mr. Wells' educational ideas have Ade,·eloped, and a criticism of these ideas. Mr. Wells has always regarded education in the broadest light-never as a narrow ae~demic or scholastic afFair, but as a process that touches life at all points. Education in this wider aspect has, therefore, assumed so great an importance in his work as a whole, that a survey such as this amounts to a more or less complete review of his philosophy. While therefore, the book appeals first to the _ edue~tionist, it is also of value for the general · reader, particularly those who regard. Mr. Wells as one of the most signi6e~nt fi2ures in modern literature. H. G. WELLS: EDUCATIONIST By the Same Author * EDUCATION AND THE SPIRIT Ho Go WELL§ EDUCATIONIST by F. H. DOUGHTY LONDON: JONATHAN CAPE LTD. F I R S T P U B L I S H -l_D I N M C M X X V I MADE ~ PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BUTLER ~ TANNER LTD FROME AND LONDON Tp E. A. D. K. F. W. D. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGB I PROPHET OR QUACK? I 3 II FROM 1THE TIME MACHINE' TO 1JOAN AND PETER' 23 III PROGRESS AND CHANGE 38 IV THE AGE OF CONFUSION 55 V THE MAKING OF MAN 77 VI THE MIND OF MAN 94 VII ETHICS AND THE WORLD STATE 107 VIII A PRELIMINARY SURVEY 119 IX NEW SCHOOLS FOR OLD 132 X THE ULTIMATE REALITY 154 XI CONCLUSION 162 APPENDICES A. CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 B. GUIDE TO MR. WELLS' EDUCATIONAL WRIT1NGS 180 C. A LIST OF MR. WELLS' TEACHERS 184 D. INDEX 189 7 PREFACE MY thanks are due to Mr. Wells, who by permitting me to read his novel, The World of William Clissold, in type­ script, enabled me to bring that work within the purview of my study without delaying its completion. To Mr. George Sampson also I wish to offer my sin­ cerest thanks, both for the encouragement I received from him while the work was in preparation, and for his kind­ ness in reading and offering valuable advice on the com­ pleted typescript. To M. Georges Connes of the University of Dijon I am further indebted, first for the help I received from his very adequate Etude sur Ia Pensee de Wells, and second for his H. G. Wells Dictionary (privately printed, Dijon, 1926) which he was good enough to send me, and which I found invaluable for reference. F. H. D. 9 The personal element cannot be eliminated from the con­ sideration of works \\Titten by living persons for living persons. We want to know who is who - whom we can depend upon to have no other end than the making things clear to himself and his readers, and whom we should mis­ trust as having an ulterior aim on which he is more intent than in the furthering of our better misunderstanding - who is trying to bolster up the system in which his interests are vested. SAMUEL BUTLER: The Humour of Homer Une fois pretre, toujours pretre; une fois pedagogue toujours pedagogue. Wells n'a jamais oublie qu'il avait enseigne: quand il parle d'education, c'est un ancien pro- fessional. GEORGES caNNES: Etude sur Ia Pensee de Wells 11 CHAPTER ONE Prophet or Quack? 'The only events of permanent importance in human affairs are educational events.' * IN reviewing a work of somewhat similar intent to this, Mr. Shanks wrote (in the London Mercury): •ro summarize the ideas of a living author (assuming that he has any) is to do a service to him and to his contemporaries, whether you contra vert him or not, or successfully or not •••' Accepting this as the warrant for my undertaking, and enheartened by the words I have italicized, there yet remain two ques· tions at issue before my apology can be regarded as adequate. The first is: Why Mr .. Wells? And the second: Why Education~ The second question is easily enough answered. Mr. Wells is not, himself, in any doubt as to the urgency of the problem of education. One has not far to look for an expression of this urgency; at the close of The Salvaging of Civilization, having in that work passed in review the measures he proposes as necessary to the saving of what yet remains to us out of the wreck of Europe, he writes, as a summing up of the whole position, •we need, before all other sorts of organization, educational organizations; we need, before any other sort of work, work of education and enlightenment; we need everywhere active societies press· ing for a better, more efficient conduct of public schooling, for a wider, more enlightening school curriculum ••• And in his latest Utopia (Men Like Gods) we find the Utopi;m 7 Lion, explaining to Mr. Bamstaple the absence 13 14 P R 0 PH E T 0 R QU A C K ? CH. 1 of. any centralized government, any political system or organization, by the fact that their education is their government. These are no half-hearted estimates of the function and value of education; nor are they the words of a narrow-minded educational fanatic; they are the words of one who has come to this belief after the widest possible survey of human society, not only in the past and in the present, but also, by prophecy, in the future. And now, Why Mr. Wells? The answer to this question is partly to be found in the previous paragraph. He is, in this matter of education, a believer, and this alone renders his work of interest to his fellow-believers. But a further consideration remains, and that concerns the influence his books have had on modern thought in general, and educa­ tional thought in particular. For the most weighty and voluminous of works which had failed to attract and hold any considerable public interest would scarcely have more than academic significance. But it can hardly be doubted that Mr. Wells has played an immense and incalculable part in forming the mind of the generation to which I belong. He is, in the words of Mr. Shanks, 'a vigorous and restless thinker who has powerfully disturbed the waters of his generation.' Vernon Lee has said that 'Mr. Wells possesses the intolerable power of setting me off thinking anew when I have shaken down comfortably among my own ideas, and do not want to hear any more of his.' So much for his influence; and no point would be served by the further elaboration, by quotation or otherwise, of what may be taken for granted. But, lest we concur too readily in these high estimates, cH.I PROPHET OR QUACK? IS it would be as well to look for awhile upon the other side, and at the same time to examine in slightly greater detail Mr. Wells' claim upon our attention. Lord Gorell, the Chairman of the Teachers' Registration Council, address· ing, in 1925, the annual meeting of the Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools, launched an indictment against Mr. Wells that fell under the follow· ing three main heads: first that Mr. Wells is a type of a 'mischievous phenomenon in the world of education;' second, that he knows 'certainly nothing about history;' and third, that he knows 'very little about education.'1 So far as the first item in this formidable indictment is concerned, its force entirely depends upon what meaning \Ye are to place upon the term 'education.' If we are to understand by it that type of public school- university education by which Lord Gorell has profited, Mr. Wells would no doubt quite readily and cheerfully plead guilty. He might even add that the more mischievous he was, the better. Lord Gorell said, for example, that he had seen a 'programme of education' drawn up by Mr. Wells that was 'ridiculous.' But on the other hand, Mr. Wells has in effect told us that he has seen (and suffered under} a system of education that was not so much 'ridiculous' as positively criminal. The second item, which arraigns Mr. Wells at the bar of History may be neglected and for a 1 'A Prime Minister had actually quoted Mr. Wells as an authority in the history of education. When that stage was reached it was time that the sedulously fostered fiction that Mr. Wells was an authority on education should be exploded.' LoRD GoR.ELL, loc. cit. I6 p R 0 p H E T 0 R Qu A c K ? CH. I somewhat similar reason; for there is History - and History; the •history' of the Outline for example, and •the trumpery dignity of classical history;' the 'history' of Herodotus and the 'history' of Mr. Belloc. The third item is, however, much more serious, and must be more fully dealt with as being intimately germane to our issue. But first let Mr. Wells speak in his own defence. •1 am,' he writes (in The Salvaging of Civiliza­ tion), 'upon my own ground here [i.e. in Education]. I am a trained teacher, and a student of pedagogic science ••. ' And again, in the same book: •1 am an old and seasoned educationist; most of my earliest writings are concealed in the anonymity of the London educational papers of a quarter of a century ago, and my knowledge of educational literature is fairly extensive. I know in particular the literature of educational reform.' Mr.