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