The Conquest Of Time

A very compact book of compelling essays on man's place in the universe.

Chapters:

1. Time Disgorges
2. What an Individual is
3. The Fear of Death
4. The Exaggeration of Pain
5. The Fear of the Dead
6. The Fundamental Question of Philosophy: The One and the Many
7. The Difference Between Mutations and Mental Adaptations
8. The Individual Life is Not a Tale Told by an Idiot.
9. After Man
10. The Religion of the New Man

Appendices:

Footnote to Chapter 1 - The Increase in Human Facilities.
Footnote to Chapter 8 - A Summary of Modern Ideas About Space and Time

Written by Wells in his words, "to replace" his 1908, First And Last Things, The Conquest of Time was to be the first in a series of "Conquest of..." books meant to offer hope during WW2. Unfortunately, H.G. lost his desire for the project while writing this first one.

In the first chapter, H.G. states that he sent off the manuscript of this book to 16 eminent (and anonymous) men of science for review. Apparently this was a fortunate as a "large blunder" was uncovered. Who this eminent man of science was, and what blunder he discovered remain a mystery.

The Conquest of Time remains engrossing throughout. It takes on many topics fearlessly, but occasionally with a distinct note of bitterness. There are sporadic attacks on religion, particularly Christianity and it seems that this book was, in part, a warm-up for the following year's Crux Ansata (q.v.).

Some quotes from The Conquest of Time:

"It did indeed seem to Ovid as though Time had swallowed many things so that they were altogether forgotten. But now Time swallows with less assurance, looks doubtful, stops eating, and turns green. Not only do events go on record, and keep on record, but Time begins to disgorge. Every year we win back more of the past..." (9)

"As a boy I heard a shrill missioner in Portsmouth Cathedral trying to impress us with the tortures of the damned. Every moment the damned individual was to experience all the pain that has ever been on earth and more also. Even at fourteen it was impossibe not to feel that this Christian God of Hell was an utterly detestable maniac, demanding hate and defiance at whatever cost" (26).

"This finite four-dimensional universe in which we live and move and have our being can expand. But if you find yourself believing it is expanding into some pre-existing space that was previously empty, then you have failed to grasp the four-dimensional idea. You are still living under the spell of what Einstein calls the 'Galilei-Newton' conception of three-dimensional infinite space. There is nothing whatever outside our four-dimensional universe, neither space nor time. All space and time are in it" (83).

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Last modified on Thursday, 12-Aug-1999 14:44:42 EDT