Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/144

This page needs to be proofread.
118
118

118 THE ARTLESSNESS OF MR. H. G. WELLS their evidence depends on their complete reliance on the spark of life within them. The conscientiousness that ties them to the trackway of a theory is really lack of faith. To foretell their future is to falsify it, is to turn them into marionettes, jerking unhumanly. It is Trafford meekly earning guineas by lecturing because his wife has not studied Domestic Economy who is monstrous and unreal. It is the airship falling out of heaven like a miracle that observes the true modesty of nature. It is when the novelist says " I know no more than you what will happen, we are all children together" that he is on the brink of making revelations. Manchester Ouardia/n, 1912.