Review:Wells:The Outline of History (MacIver)

Of Newspapers

Review:Wells:The Outline of History (MacIver) written by Robert Morrison MacIver

Review:Smith:A Study in Canadian Immigration (Sissons)

In The Canadian Forum, October 1920, p.24 An addendum in issue #3, page 69, advised that the book was published by Tha Macmillan Company of Canada in 2 volumes.

The Outline of History: being a Plain History of Life and Mankind, by H. G. Wells. (Cassell & Co.). "It is scarcely too much to say that the ordinary man thinks as little about political matters as he can, and stops thinking about them as soon as possible. It is still only very curious and exceptional minds, or minds that have by example or good education acquired the scientific habit of wanting to know why, or minds shocked and distressed by some public catastrophe and roused to wide apprehensions of dangers, that will not accept governments and institutions, however preposterous, that do not directly annoy them, as satisfactory. The ordinary human being, until he is so aroused, will acquiesce in any collective activities that are going on in this world in which he finds himself, and any phrasing or symbolization that meets his vague need for something greater to which his personal affairs, his individual circle, can be anchored."

So writes Mr. Wells in explaining the rise of the spirit of nationality. It is one of those characteristic comments which of themselves would suffice to make his Outline of History an unusually readable work. It also suggests the motive for this novel and really arduous enterprise on the part of an author who in the fulness of his career turns from fiction to universal history. "There can be no common peace and prosperity without common historical ideas". It is not so much an outline as a survey of history, in which mankind is consistently regarded as one, of one flesh and blood, of one human spirit through all the endless bickerings and divisions, all the dominations and revolutions and acquiescences of this story of a myriad threads. Man is not a "political animal" in the modern sense of politics. He takes it mostly for granted, but he is, perhaps just on that account, eminently educable. Which makes it worth while, for one who sees it so, to undertake the comprehensive task of a "plain history of life and mankind".

Mr. Wells is not a professed historian, a specialist in history. It may be replied perhaps that the specialist does not write a universal history from "the making of our world" to the "great war". In so far as that is a possible task it demands, along with the widest reading, the comprehensive interpretative mind. Mr. Wells has undoubtedly the gift of interpretation. He is remarkably open-minded, and though his own view is always clear and positive, he shows as a rule every consideration for positions which he does not hold. He has an unusually free and versatile mind. A scientific friend sums it up by saying he was "unpolarised". He is happily conscious of his own tendencies, and having expressed them he lets the other side speak. He tells us, for example, in discussing the contribution of Rome to civilization, that he "contemplates the law and lawyers with a temperamental lack of appreciation", and that this may have made him unfair to Rome. Probably most readers will agree that he is unduly depreciative of Rome, but his own estimate is well worth pondering over. One unusual feature of the work is that he has called in the advice and criticism of a number of specialists, in particular Mr. Ernest Barker, Sir H. H. Johnston, Sir E. Ray Lankester, and Professor Gilbert Murray, and the footnote comments and controversies of these and other critics give an additional zest to this "plain history". They dispute about the intelligence of the Greek mob, the character of the Early Christians, and many other diverting topics.

What strikes me most about Mr. Wells' account is his flair for the significant things. He does not unduly sacrifice details, he selects the relevant facts, and yet has the power of giving a unified, vivid impression of changing situations. Take for example, out of a thousand instances, his account of the mystification of the original Christianity by the Church, the elaboration of "evasive philosophy and theological stuff" so that men might ward off its revolutionary impact upon their traditional lives and instincts; or the admirably written summary of the similar decline of the Buddhist faith; or again the account of the rise of nationalities in the decay of the universal Church, in which "these strange beings, England and France and Germany", became "the real and living Gods of Europe".

There is no space to touch on any of the thousand interesting questions which the reading of Mr. Wells' history raises. If I were to suggest any criticism it would be that he sometimes makes communities too temperamental, so that the changes of outlook and tendency come too simply and suddenly. Thus he tells us that with the coming of George I "a dullness, a tarnish, came over the intellectual life of the land" — a dubious consequence and dubiously derived. But this too is a question of interpretation.

The value of the history is enhanced by the admirable and abundant illustrations. The whole is worth half a library to the general reader, and he will miss much unless he possesses a copy.

R. M. M.