Last Words on Great Issues (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1917 Excerpt: ... II ON MR. WELLS' NEW RELIGION IN PARTICULAR My first superficial impression on reading Mr. Wells' "God, the Invisible King," was that in no part of it, as I had expected, was there anything that could be called original, anything that would justify its claim to being a new Religion. It seemed to be an exquisite artistic piece of window-dressing rather: a beautiful bouquet composed of the flowers of many religions, all so arranged that while concealing their ruder stems, they formed a really new artistic creation; and when I closed the book I felt that should Mr. Wells never add another work to the long list he has already given us, he might on his death-bed proudly exclaim, as Nero did on his--"What an artist dies with me." When he brought his "Veiled Being" and his "God, the Invisible King," on his stage to characterize his religious ideas, I felt there was a magical potency in the very sound of them, which would attract multitudes who would otherwise be repelled if their bare and wintry branches could not be clothed in summer leaves and flowers. When I came on those recurring phrases of the "Veiled King," and "God, the Invisible King, ' I felt like old Polonius in " Hamlet " when the players came to the Castle to give Hamlet a taste of their quality; and when Hamlet querying aloud as to what the actor meant by the "mobled Queen," Polonius settled it off hand and at once by his outspoken comment, "Mobled Queen--that is good." So, too, when I read of the "Veiled Being," and of "God, the Invisible King," I inwardly said to myself, "That is good " For I felt as Hamlet himself says in another connexion, there must be something in these mystic phrases, "if philosophy could only find it out." The "Veiled Being" suggested to me something like the great Sphinx of E...