kely to arouse
considerable resentment, "Of course we are detestable," Remington
admits in this connection; and in these later, more urgently critical
novels, we recognise a little too clearly that note of protest, almost
of defensive proclamation. And in none of them do we see it more
definitely than in the book now under consideration. In many ways _The
New Machiavelli_ stands apart from the other novels. I find it a
little bitter in places, because the thing condemned appears too small
for such unequivocal condemnation. The following superlative summary
is put into the mouth of a minor character, but I think it is fairly
representative of Remington's later attitude. "But of all the damned
things that ever were damned," says the plain-spoken Britten, "your
damned shirking, temperate, sham-efficient, self-satisfied,
respectable, make-believe, Fabian-spirited Young Liberal is the
utterly damnedest." As a commentary, I find this exaggerated; and
although it is in the mouth of one who is not presented as a spokesman
for Mr Wells' own opinions, I feel that it comes very near to being a
text for a considerable section of the political criticism; and that
it indicates bias, a departure from normality.

And yet, despite this occasional exhibition of temper, _The New
Machiavelli_ is a most illuminating book. It reveals with
extraordinary clearness the Wells of that period; but it also gives us
a sight of the spirit in him that does not change. All his books,
romances, novels and essays indicate a gradual process of growth; if
we were to apply any label to him, we should inevitably land ourselves
in confusion. He is nothing "in the first place" but a man with an
intense desire to understand life. As he says in this book: "A human
being who is a philosopher in the first place, a teacher in the first
place, or a statesman in the first place, is thereby and
inevitably--though he bring God-like gifts to the pretence--a quack."
But while he may dissociate himself from any clique, and disclaim any
fixed opinion that might earn for him the offensive and fiercely
rejected label, he nevertheless presents to us one unchanging attitude
in these very refusals. "I'm going to get experience for humanity out
of all my talents--and bury nothing," says Remington; and that purpose
is implicit in every book that Wells has written. He is an empiric,
using first this test and then that to try the phenomena of life;
publishing the detail of his exp