The Research MagnificentWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
General
The Research Magnificent
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Conduct of life -- Fiction
He pulled up at this and reflected for a time with some distinguished
instances in his mind. They were so distinguished, so dignified, they
took their various arts with so admirable a gravity that the soul of
this young man recoiled from the verdicts to which his reasoning drove
him. “It's not for me to judge them,” he decided, “except in relation
to myself. For them there may be tremendous significances in Art. But
if these do not appear to me, then so far as I am concerned they do not
exist for me. They are not in my world. So far as they attempt to invade
me and control my attitudes or my outlook, or to judge me in any way,
there is no question of their impudence. Impudence is the word for it.
My world is real. I want to be really aristocratic, really brave, really
paying for the privilege of not being a driven worker. The things
the artist makes are like the things my private dream-artist makes,
relaxing, distracting. What can Art at its greatest be, pure Art that
is, but a more splendid, more permanent, transmissible reverie! The very
essence of what I am after is NOT to be an artist....”
After a large and serious movement through his mind he came back to
Science, Philosophy or Politics as the sole three justifications for the
usurpation of leisure.
So far as devotion to science went, he knew he had no specific aptitude
for any departmentalized subject, and equally he felt no natural call to
philosophy. He was left with politics....
“Or else, why shouldn't I go down there and pick up a shovel and set to
work? To make leisure for my betters....”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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