第 11 节
作者:
点绛唇 更新:2021-02-20 15:52 字数:9322
He has come to the most dreadful conclusion a literary man can
come to; the conclusion that the ordinary view is the right one。
It is only the last and wildest kind of courage that can stand
on a tower before ten thousand people and tell them that twice
two is four。
Mr。 H。 G。 Wells exists at present in a gay and exhilarating progress
of conservativism。 He is finding out more and more that conventions;
though silent; are alive。 As good an example as any of this
humility and sanity of his may be found in his change of view
on the subject of science and marriage。 He once held; I believe;
the opinion which some singular sociologists still hold;
that human creatures could successfully be paired and bred after
the manner of dogs or horses。 He no longer holds that view。
Not only does he no longer hold that view; but he has written about it
in 〃Mankind in the Making〃 with such smashing sense and humour; that I
find it difficult to believe that anybody else can hold it either。
It is true that his chief objection to the proposal is that it is
physically impossible; which seems to me a very slight objection;
and almost negligible compared with the others。 The one objection
to scientific marriage which is worthy of final attention is simply
that such a thing could only be imposed on unthinkable slaves
and cowards。 I do not know whether the scientific marriage…mongers
are right (as they say) or wrong (as Mr。 Wells says) in saying
that medical supervision would produce strong and healthy men。
I am only certain that if it did; the first act of the strong
and healthy men would be to smash the medical supervision。
The mistake of all that medical talk lies in the very fact that it
connects the idea of health with the idea of care。 What has health
to do with care? Health has to do with carelessness。 In special
and abnormal cases it is necessary to have care。 When we are peculiarly
unhealthy it may be necessary to be careful in order to be healthy。
But even then we are only trying to be healthy in order to be careless。
If we are doctors we are speaking to exceptionally sick men;
and they ought to be told to be careful。 But when we are sociologists
we are addressing the normal man; we are addressing humanity。
And humanity ought to be told to be recklessness itself。
For all the fundamental functions of a healthy man ought emphatically
to be performed with pleasure and for pleasure; they emphatically
ought not to be performed with precaution or for precaution。
A man ought to eat because he has a good appetite to satisfy;
and emphatically not because he has a body to sustain。 A man ought
to take exercise not because he is too fat; but because he loves foils
or horses or high mountains; and loves them for their own sake。
And a man ought to marry because he has fallen in love;
and emphatically not because the world requires to be populated。
The food will really renovate his tissues as long as he is not thinking
about his tissues。 The exercise will really get him into training
so long as he is thinking about something else。 And the marriage will
really stand some chance of producing a generous…blooded generation
if it had its origin in its own natural and generous excitement。
It is the first law of health that our necessities should not be
accepted as necessities; they should be accepted as luxuries。
Let us; then; be careful about the small things; such as a scratch
or a slight illness; or anything that can be managed with care。
But in the name of all sanity; let us be careless about the
important things; such as marriage; or the fountain of our very
life will fail。
Mr。 Wells; however; is not quite clear enough of the narrower
scientific outlook to see that there are some things which actually
ought not to be scientific。 He is still slightly affected with
the great scientific fallacy; I mean the habit of beginning not
with the human soul; which is the first thing a man learns about;
but with some such thing as protoplasm; which is about the last。
The one defect in his splendid mental equipment is that he does
not sufficiently allow for the stuff or material of men。
In his new Utopia he says; for instance; that a chief point of
the Utopia will be a disbelief in original sin。 If he had begun
with the human soulthat is; if he had begun on himselfhe would
have found original sin almost the first thing to be believed in。
He would have found; to put the matter shortly; that a permanent
possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self;
and not from any accidents of education or ill…treatment。 And
the weakness of all Utopias is this; that they take the greatest
difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome; and then give
an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones。
They first assume that no man will want more than his share;
and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share
will be delivered by motor…car or balloon。 And an even stronger
example of Mr。 Wells's indifference to the human psychology can
be found in his cosmopolitanism; the abolition in his Utopia of all
patriotic boundaries。 He says in his innocent way that Utopia
must be a world…state; or else people might make war on it。
It does not seem to occur to him that; for a good many of us; if it were
a world…state we should still make war on it to the end of the world。
For if we admit that there must be varieties in art or opinion what
sense is there in thinking there will not be varieties in government?
The fact is very simple。 Unless you are going deliberately to prevent
a thing being good; you cannot prevent it being worth fighting for。
It is impossible to prevent a possible conflict of civilizations;
because it is impossible to prevent a possible conflict between ideals。
If there were no longer our modern strife between nations; there would
only be a strife between Utopias。 For the highest thing does not tend
to union only; the highest thing; tends also to differentiation。
You can often get men to fight for the union; but you can
never prevent them from fighting also for the differentiation。
This variety in the highest thing is the meaning of the fierce patriotism;
the fierce nationalism of the great European civilization。
It is also; incidentally; the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity。
But I think the main mistake of Mr。 Wells's philosophy is a somewhat
deeper one; one that he expresses in a very entertaining manner
in the introductory part of the new Utopia。 His philosophy in some
sense amounts to a denial of the possibility of philosophy itself。
At least; he maintains that there are no secure and reliable
ideas upon which we can rest with a final mental satisfaction。
It will be both clearer; however; and more amusing to quote
Mr。 Wells himself。
He says; 〃Nothing endures; nothing is precise and certain
(except the mind of a pedant)。 。 。 。 Being indeed!there is no being;
but a universal becoming of individualities; and Plato turned his back
on truth when he turned towards his museum of specific ideals。〃
Mr。 Wells says; again; 〃There is no abiding thing in what we know。
We change from weaker to stronger lights; and each more powerful
light pierces our hitherto opaque foundations and reveals
fresh and different opacities below。〃 Now; when Mr。 Wells
says things like this; I speak with all respect when I say
that he does not observe an evident mental distinction。
It cannot be true that there is nothing abiding in what we know。
For if that were so we should not know it all and should not call
it knowledge。 Our mental state may be very different from that
of somebody else some thousands of years back; but it cannot be
entirely different; or else we should not be conscious of a difference。
Mr。 Wells must surely realize the first and simplest of the paradoxes
that sit by the springs of truth。 He must surely see that the fact
of two things being different implies that they are similar。
The hare and the tortoise may differ in the quality of swiftness;
but they must agree in the quality of motion。 The swiftest hare
cannot be swifter than an isosceles triangle or the idea of pinkness。
When we say the hare moves faster; we say that the tortoise moves。
And when we say of a thing that it moves; we say; without need
of other words; that there are things that do not move。
And even in the act of saying that things c