ernal evidence--partly, I daresay, on both--that men cannot thrive,
either as individuals or as world-citizens, without some relation of
reverence and affection to something outside and above themselves. He
foresees that Christianity will come bankrupt out of the War, and yet
that the huge, shattering experience will throw the minds of men open
to spiritual influences. At the same time (of this one could point to
several incidental evidences) he has come a good deal in contact with
Indian religiosity, and learnt to know a type of mind to which God, in
one form or another, is indeed an essential of life, while the
particular form is a matter of comparative indifference. Then the idea
strikes him: "Have we not here a great opportunity for placing the
motive-power of spiritual fervor behind, or within, the sluggish
framework of social idealism? Here it lies, well thought-out,
carefully constructed, but inert, like an aeroplane without an
engine. By giving the glow of supernaturalism, of the worship of a
personal God, to the good old Religion of Humanity, may we not impart
to our schemes for a well-ordered world precisely the uplift they at
present lack? It was all very well for chilly New England
transcendentalism to 'hitch its waggon to a star,' but the result is
that Boston is governed by a Roman Catholic Archbishop. It is really
much easier and more effective to hitch our waggon to God, who, being
a synthesis of our own higher selves, will naturally pull it in
whatever direction we want. Thus the mass of mankind will escape from
that spiritual loneliness which is so discomfortable to them, and will
find, in one and the same personification, a deity to listen to their
prayers, and a 'boss,' in the Tammany sense of the term, to herd them
to the polling-booths. What we want is collectivism touched with
emotion. By proclaiming it to be the will of God, and identifying
sound politics with ecstatic piety, we may shorten by several
centuries the path to a new world-order."

This is a translation into plain English of the thoughts which would
seem to have possessed Mr. Wells's mind during the past year or so. I
do not for a moment mean that he put them to himself in plain
English. That would be to accuse him of insincerity--a thought which I
most sincerely disclaim. I have not the least doubt that the Invisible
King does actually supply a "felt want" in his spiritual outfit, and
that he is perfectly convinced that most other pe