H. Wells - You Can't Be Too Careful

What are ideers? said Mr Edward Albert Tewler. What good are they? What good do they do you?

Young Tewler had no answer.

You get these here books, said Mr Tewler senior.

You dont ave to read em. It cant be good for your eyes, especially nowadays with all this light-saving and everything. And what, do you get out of them? He paused for his own contemptuous reply....Ideers!

I made good, Mr Tewler continued, trampling over the rebellious silence of his offspring. And why? Because I took jolly good care to steer clear of all these Ideers. I made up my mind and I did. What the world wants of a man is Characterand you cant have much character left if youve muddled yourself up with Ideers. See! I ask youow I made good?

You got the G.C., said young Tewler. Were all proud of you.

Very well, said Mr Tewler senior conclusively.

There was a pause. All the same, said young Tewler.

Ah! said his father.

All the same, said young Tewler. You got to keep up with the times. Things do change.

You dont change human nature. Theres such things as the Eternal Verities, Enery. Ever eard of em?

Yerss. I know. But all this stuff thats getting about. Like abolishing distance, stopping this air war, having a sort of federal world. If we dont end war, war will end us. All that.

Claptrap, said his father. Bawls.

Well, said his offspring. I was reading a book

There you go!

Well, he said anyhow, he wasnt talking about Ideers. He was talking about facts. Thats what he said. Just as you and me might be.

Facts! What are these precious facts of is? In a book!

Well, Im telling you. He says that what with all this invention and discovery thats been going on life isnt the same as it used to be. Weve got so that everybodys on our doorstep. Weve got power, more than we ever ad, so as to be able to smash our world to bits. And e says we are smashing it to bits. And what he says is that whether its hard, whether it goes against the grain, we cant go on in the old way. We got to exert ourselves. War, e says, will last for ever unless we get a lot of new things going....

Now listen to me, Enery. Who is it as been putting all these Ideers into you?for Ideers they are, say what you like. Who is it, I ask? Some one whos written a book? Eh? Some professor or journalist or something of that sort? Some devilish clever chap who isnt reely anybody at all. Somebody whod just jump at the chance of getting a undred pounds for writing a book to depress people and not mind what happens. Well, lets come down to brass tacks. Put him on one side there. As it might beso. Now here on the other and youve got real people, thousands of those who know. Heres our great Leader. Dont he know anything, Enery? Who are you and your book-writer to criticise and sit in judgment on im? Heres all these men of experience in the government, older than you are, wiser than you are, brought up to deal with just these particular things. Heres business men with great businesses, businesses you havent the beginnings of a notion. Dont they know anything? No? You got ideers about India. Have you ever bin to India, Enery? They ave. Youve got notions about Japan. What do you know of Japan? There they are, they got the best science, the very fullest information, the knowledge, theyve learnt everything they could teach em at the universities, let alone the experience, and along comes somesome unresponsible scribbler with his ideers... Unresponsible scribbler, I said, and I repeat it, unresponsible, with his twopenny-halfpenny ideers, arguing and suggesting. E knows this and e knows that. And everybody else is wrong. And off you fly!

Well, the world now isnt so particularly satisfactory.... Falling to pieces like.... Dont seem to settle down; does it?....

Its as right as it can be. What do you know of the difficulties they got to contend against? You got to trust em. Who are you to set yourself up?

All the same you cant help thinking

Think? yesI admit thatyou got to think, out think in the right way. Think like people round you think. Dont go rushing about like a dog with a wasp in his ear, with ideers that dont stand to reason. All this talk of a new world! Brave new world it would be! As the saying goes. Brave New World! Stay put where you are, boy. Do you want to be queer? Do you want to go about talking all this sort of thing just to be larfed at? Supposenow suppose even there was something in all that stuff you get in books. Theres undreds of books saying this that and the other thing. Whos to tell you which is right? I ask you. I do put it to you, Enery.

Edward Albert Tewlers face was very grave and earnest and full of parental solicitude. His voice lost its faint flavour of querulous protest and became simply affectionate. Youll grow out of all this, Enery, he said. Its a sort of measles of the mind. It rubs off. I had it. Not as bad as you, I admit, for I didnt run the same risks. I was never a great reader, thank God, and when I did read I stuck to safe books. Still I know how it goes....

Frinstance I was brought up a bit narrer. My mother, she was an angel if ever was, but she was narrer. She got narrer. She was too good to suspect them as got old of her. When it came to Total Immersion and all that and going to meeting Sunday after Sunday I struck. It wasnt that I lost my faith. No. It grew. It broadened out, my boy. Simple earnest Christianity, says I, and none of your Creeds and Ideers and complications. And thats what I am, a Simple Believing Christian in a Christian Land. The Lord died to save us, Enery, me and you, and theres no need to make a song about it. Or risk ketching your death of cold as they wanted me to do. Trust in God and honour the King. Thats good enough for me. Yes.

He paused. He smiled indulgently at his past.

A little religious trouble I did ave even after that. I didnt take things for granted.... Thats not my way. About the ark it was. Curious! Ill tell you. You see, I bin to the Zoo and suddenly I doubted about whether the ark could ave eld all them animals. I did, Enery. Being clever, that was. Being silly, my boy. It was the Devil put it into me to make a fool of me. Just as though God Ormighty couldnt pack anything into anything if E ad a mind to. Why, if hed wanted to. He couldve put all them animals into a nutshellall of them. Leastwaysa cokernut, say. Easy

I saw the light, and so will you, Enery. All this Brave Noo World of theirs! Bunkum New World, says I. Gord larfs at it. Ferget it!... Youll grow out of it. At heart youre sound, my boy. Youre the bulldog breed. At heart, when youre put to the test, youll stand up to it as I stood up to it and come out right side up.

The young man looked mulish still, but he said no more.

The conversation hung fire for a moment.

Then Edward Albert Tewler resumed. Im glad to have this talk with you. Now you are going away, Ive been a bit worried. Seeing you reading so much. Theres other subjects I might talk to you about as father to sonbut nowadays people seem to know such a lot. More than ever I did. We wont go into all that, No.... You may be away a long time, and its not so easy to get about now as it used to be. Ive never been much of a letter-writer....

Theres all this new sort of fever about. They say its the water. Doctors arent what they were. Sometimes when I get a fit of them night-stummick-aches of mine. Twisty they are. Make me oiler. May be fancy, but one cant help thinking. You may come back ere one of these days, my boy, and not find me. No good pulling a long face about it,