Decorations

W THE EDITOR'S FENCE NEW EDITORIAL ADDRESS Effective July 1, I968, all correspondence, contributions, and subscription orders must be addressed as follows: Helmut E. Gerber, Editor English Literature in Transition Department of English Northern Illinois University DeKaIb, Illinois 6OII5 Subscription rates remain the same and the journal remains independent and fundamentally self-supporting. The Northern Illinois University Department of English provides secretarial and graduate assistant aid. Checks should be made payable to English Literature in Transition or ELT. 78 5 In the light of this observation, Edouard Guyot (H. G. Wells [Paris: Payot, 1920]) is correct when he writes that "le socialisme est, pour Wells, une doctrine progressive, tendant à , l'invisible transformation des mentalités, bien plus qu'à une transformation dramatique des institutions" (p. 189), for all social institutions emerge from and depend on man's mentality or inner Spirit, which alone must be cultivated if man is to awaken. 6 As is the case with the motifs of nobility and beauty, this emphasis on the value of the human imagination occurs frequently in Wells's works. One of Mr. Polly's most praisewothry aspects lies In his Imagination, that "little flower" which engenders his quest for nobility and beauty (HP, XVII, 151). Likewise, in The Undying Fire Huss asserts that he has "taught the imagination, first and most" because it is one of the primary characteristics of the Spirit of Man (UF, XI, 79). Again, In his autobiography Wells often remarks that Isabel's failure as his wife resulted from her lack of imagination (EA, pp. 235, 297, 391) and that Amy Robbins provided »a new outlet for [nlsJ imagination" (EA, p. 299). 7 The love motif includes at least two subordinated recurring thematic elements: the human heart and sex. Furthermore, this motif as well as those related to It are personified In Nettie (DC, X, 99, 314-316), Beatrice (TB, XII, 43, 400-401, 433), and Margaret (NM, XIV, 249, 252, 411). 8 "A Study of H. G. Wells's .In the Days of the Comet," (University of Illinois, Urbana, I963), unpublished thesis, p. 128. See also Van Wyck Brooks (Th_e World of H_. G. Wells [Lond: T. F. Unwin, I915]) for a good discussion of Wells's view of the role of man's will In the world (pp. 21-23, 122-123). N!