MANKIND IN THE MAKING


BY

H. G. WELLS




PREFACE


It may save misunderstanding if a word or so be said here of the aim
and scope of this book. It is written in relation to a previous work,
_Anticipations_, [Footnote: Published by Harper Bros.] and
together with that and a small pamphlet, "The Discovery of the Future,"
[Footnote: Nature, vol. lxv. (1901-2), p. 326, and reprinted in the
Smithsonian Report for 1902] presents a general theory of social
development and of social and political conduct. It is an attempt to
deal with social and political questions in a new way and from a new
starting-point, viewing the whole social and political world as aspects
of one universal evolving scheme, and placing all social and political
activities in a defined relation to that; and to this general method
and trend it is that the attention of the reader is especially
directed. The two books and the pamphlet together are to be regarded as
an essay in presentation. It is a work that the writer admits he has
undertaken primarily for his own mental comfort. He is remarkably not
qualified to assume an authoritative tone in these matters, and he is
acutely aware of the many defects in detailed knowledge, in temper, and