An Englishman Looks at the World

An Englishman Looks at the World

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Title: An Englishman Looks at the World
Author: H. G. Wells
Release Date: March 16, 2004 [eBook #11502]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AN ENGLISHMAN LOOKS AT THE WORLD
Being a Series of Unrestrained Remarks upon Contemporary Matters
By
H.G. WELLS
1914

Bl��riot arrives and sets him thinking. (1)
He flies, (2)
And deduces certain consequences of cheap travel. (3)
He considers the King, and speculates on the New Epoch; (4)
He thinks Imperially, (5)
And then, coming to details, about Labour, (6)
Socialism, (7)
And Modern Warfare, (8)
He discourses on the Modern Novel, (9)
And the Public Library; (10)
Criticises Chesterton, Belloc, (11)
And Sir Thomas More, (12)
And deals with the London Traffic Problem as a Socialist should. (13)
He doubts the existence of Sociology, (14)
Discusses Divorce, (15)
Schoolmasters, (16)
Motherhood, (17)
Doctors, (18)
And Specialisation; (19)
Questions if there is a People, (20)
And diagnoses the Political Disease of our Times. (21)
He then speculates upon the future of the American Population, (22)
Considers a possible set-back to civilisation, (23)
The Ideal Citizen, (24)
The still undeveloped possibilities of Science, (25), and--in the broadest spirit--
The Human Adventure. (26)

CONTENTS
1. The Coming of Bl��riot
2. My First Flight
3. Off the Chain
4. Of the New Reign
5. Will the Empire Live?
6. The Labour Unrest
7. The Great State
8. The Common Sense of Warfare
9. The Contemporary Novel
10. The Philosopher's Public Library
11. About Chesterton and Belloc
12. About Sir Thomas More
13. Traffic and Rebuilding
14. The So-called Science of Sociology
15. Divorce
16. The Schoolmaster and the Empire
17. The Endowment of Motherhood
18. Doctors
19. An Age of Specialisation
20. Is there a People?
21. The Disease of Parliaments
22. The American Population
23. The Possible Collapse of Civilisation
24. The Ideal Citizen
25. Some Possible Discoveries
26. The Human Adventure

AN ENGLISHMAN LOOKS AT THE WORLD

THE COMING OF BL��RIOT
(_July, 1909_.)
The telephone bell rings with the petulant persistence that marks a trunk call, and I go in from some ineffectual gymnastics on the lawn to deal with the irruption. There is the usual trouble in connecting up, minute voices in Folkestone and Dover and London call to one another and are submerged by buzzings and throbbings. Then in elfin tones the real message comes through: "Bl��riot has crossed the Channel.... An article ... about what it means."
I make a hasty promise and go out and tell my friends.
From my garden I look straight upon the Channel, and there are white caps upon the water, and the iris and tamarisk are all asway with the south-west wind that was also blowing yesterday. M. Bl��riot has done very well, and Mr. Latham, his rival, had jolly bad luck. That is what it means to us first of all. It also, I reflect privately, means that I have under-estimated the possible stability of aeroplanes. I did not expect anything of the sort so soon. This is a good five years before my reckoning of the year before last.
We all, I think, regret that being so near we were not among the fortunate ones who saw that little flat shape skim landward out of the blue; surely they have an enviable memory; and then we fell talking and disputing about what that swift arrival may signify. It starts a swarm of questions.
First one remarks that here is a thing done, and done with an astonishing effect of ease, that was incredible not simply to ignorant people but to men well informed in these matters. It cannot be fifteen years ago since Sir Hiram Maxim made the first machine that could lift its weight from the ground, and I well remember how the clumsy quality of that success confirmed the universal doubt that men could ever in any effectual manner fly.
Since then a conspiracy of accidents has changed the whole problem; the bicycle and its vibrations developed the pneumatic tyre, the pneumatic tyre rendered a comfortable mechanically driven road vehicle possible, the motor-car set an enormous premium on the development of very light, very efficient engines, and at last the engineer was able to offer the experimentalists in gliding one strong enough and light enough for the new purpose. And here we are! Or, rather, M. Bl��riot is!
What does it mean for us?
One meaning, I think, stands out plainly enough, unpalatable enough to our national pride. This thing from first to last was made abroad. Of all that made it possible we can only claim so much as is due to the improvement of the bicycle. Gliding began abroad while our young men of muscle and courage were braving the dangers of