A year of prophesying

Name: A year of prophesying
Author: Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Civilization, Modern -- 20th century; Europe -- History -- 20th century; Great Britain -- History -- 20th century

What protest has there been from that world? One might have expected
vigorous outcries on behalf of Salamanca from Oxford and Cambridge,
from London and the British Academy, from Harvard and Yale and
Chicago, and the hundred and one universities and colleges of North
and South America, an immense outbreak of indignation. I have heard
of scarcely any. From the University of Paris there has been a fairly
representative protest, and Lisbon has spoken. I have seen a few
paragraphs in the highbrow weeklies of Britain and America. But the
intellectual workers of our English-speaking world seem as a whole to
have been as little affected by this particular exploit of the King
of Spain’s Dictator as a flock of grazing sheep by the death of one
of its number. So far as they are concerned he may shut up all the
Universities of Spain and maroon their entire staffs. Their sense of
any community of interests among the Universities of the world seems
to be almost completely lacking. The ordinary miner or transport
worker has much to teach the university professor in the matter of
occupational self-respect.

Of course, both in England and America in the last dozen years or
so there have been rather similar cases to this crowning outrage of
vulgar force upon mind. There was the case of Mr. Bertrand Russell,
for example, during the war, and in America it is inadvisable for
professors of economics and social science to lean too visibly
towards collectivism. And Mr. William Jennings Bryan knows all about
creation and incites backward States to dismiss teachers of biology
who teach contrary to the beliefs of this favoured confidant of the
Deity. Perhaps an uneasy consciousness of such facts has hampered the
English-speaking communities in this affair. Meanwhile Don Miguel
Unamuno studies the seascapes of the Canary Islands, and, so far as his
opinion of King Alfonso goes, he is restricted to conversation with the
islanders.

And if by any chance King Alfonso should visit England and go to Oxford
or Cambridge, all the dons and deans and heads would put on their
fullest plumage to bow and scrape to him.




                                 XXXII

      AN OPEN LETTER TO ANATOLE FRANCE ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY

 (WRITTEN AS THE ENGLISH CONTRIBUTION TO A BOOKLET OF CONGRATULATION)


                                19.5.24

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

A year of prophesyingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)

History

A year of prophesying

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Civilization, Modern -- 20th century; Europe -- History -- 20th century; Great Britain -- History -- 20th century

What protest has there been from that world? One might have expected
vigorous outcries on behalf of Salamanca from Oxford and Cambridge,
from London and the British Academy, from Harvard and Yale and
Chicago, and the hundred and one universities and colleges of North
and South America, an immense outbreak of indignation. I have heard
of scarcely any. From the University of Paris there has been a fairly
representative protest, and Lisbon has spoken. I have seen a few
paragraphs in the highbrow weeklies of Britain and America. But the
intellectual workers of our English-speaking world seem as a whole to
have been as little affected by this particular exploit of the King
of Spain’s Dictator as a flock of grazing sheep by the death of one
of its number. So far as they are concerned he may shut up all the
Universities of Spain and maroon their entire staffs. Their sense of
any community of interests among the Universities of the world seems
to be almost completely lacking. The ordinary miner or transport
worker has much to teach the university professor in the matter of
occupational self-respect.

Of course, both in England and America in the last dozen years or
so there have been rather similar cases to this crowning outrage of
vulgar force upon mind. There was the case of Mr. Bertrand Russell,
for example, during the war, and in America it is inadvisable for
professors of economics and social science to lean too visibly
towards collectivism. And Mr. William Jennings Bryan knows all about
creation and incites backward States to dismiss teachers of biology
who teach contrary to the beliefs of this favoured confidant of the
Deity. Perhaps an uneasy consciousness of such facts has hampered the
English-speaking communities in this affair. Meanwhile Don Miguel
Unamuno studies the seascapes of the Canary Islands, and, so far as his
opinion of King Alfonso goes, he is restricted to conversation with the
islanders.

And if by any chance King Alfonso should visit England and go to Oxford
or Cambridge, all the dons and deans and heads would put on their
fullest plumage to bow and scrape to him.




                                 XXXII

      AN OPEN LETTER TO ANATOLE FRANCE ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY

 (WRITTEN AS THE ENGLISH CONTRIBUTION TO A BOOKLET OF CONGRATULATION)


                                19.5.24

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

A year of prophesying

A year of prophesying

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