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''First and Last Things'' is a 1908 work of philosophy by H. G. Wells setting forth his beliefs in four "books" entitled "Metaphysics," "Of Belief," "Of General Conduct," and "Some Personal Things." Parts of the book were published in the ''Independent Magazine'' in July and August 1908.〔David Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Another Sort of Life'' (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 188.〕 Wells revised the book extensively in 1917, in response to his religious conversion, but later published a further revision in 1929 that restored much of the book to its earlier form. Its main intellectual influences are Darwinism and certain German thinkers Wells had read, such as August Weismann.〔David C. Smith, ''H.G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography'' (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 122. Smith is the biographer of Wells who has given the most attention to ''First and Last Things''; see his work for comment and a more extensive précis.〕 The pragmatism of William James, who had become a friend of Wells, was also an influence.〔David Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Another Sort of Life'' (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 188.〕 ==Summary== In the first book, Wells emphasises his scepticism: neither the senses nor the mind can be relied upon uncritically, and "The world of fact is not what it appears to be."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', I, §4.〕 Beliefs are not convictions, but rather positions arrived at "exactly as an artist makes a picture" and are adopted "because I feel a need for them, because I feel an often quite unanalysable rightness in them. . . . My belief in them rests upon the fact that they ''work'' for me and satisfy a desire for harmony and beauty."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', I, §11; emphasis in original.〕 In the second book, devoted to his "essential beliefs,"〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §15.〕 Wells asserts as "quite an arbitrary act of my mind" and "a choice" his "most comprehensive belief": "the external and the internal and myself . . . make one universe in which I and every part are ultimately important." On this point, he refuses argument, calling this "unfounded and arbitrary declaration" to be his "fundamental religious confession."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §1. Vincent Brome (''H.G. Wells: A Biography'' (Green, 1951 ), p. 138) noted that ''First and Last Things'' "quite fantastically revealed a streak in him, a mystical streak, which none of his detractors admitted or wanted to know about," though Brome himself is greatly attracted by it.〕 But he rejects use of "the name of God" because "the run of people" would misunderstand his meaning.〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §2.〕 He affirms the freedom of the will, and asserts that "'What am I to do?' is the perpetual question of our existence."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §5.〕 After analysing the various motives to action that he feels, he resolves them by embracing a "ruling idea," viz. an historically emerging "solidarity of humanity," although he acknowledges that "the species is still as a whole unawakened, still sunken in the delusion of the permanent separateness of the individual and of races and nations."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §8.〕 Wells, however, regards this solidarity of humanity as a biological "fact."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §9.〕 The direction of this human development is "to Power and Beauty," but he takes a confessedly "mystical" attitude in regard to these terms, refusing to define, or even to distinguish them.〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §10. Wells does say, however, that "() is light, I fall back upon that image, it is all things that light can be, beacon, elucidation, pleasure, comfort and consolation, promise, warning, the vision of reality."〕 He rejects personal immortality. He criticises the Christianity he was raised in because he does not believe in the existence of "a divine-human friend and mediator" (though he admits the "splendid imaginative appeal" of the idea).〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §13.〕 He regards "all religions to be in a measure true," but also as "false."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §14.〕 In the third book, by far the longest and occupying more than half the volume, Wells develops the "rule of life" that he promises in its subtitle. This involves a resolve to work for Socialism, which he considers to be "a great social and political movement that correlates itself with my conception of a great synthesis of human purpose as the aspect towards us of the universal scheme."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', III, §2. Rather surprisingly, considering his later thought, Wells also asserts that "I think there is a reasonable case for considering oneself in and of the Catholic Church and bound to work for its rectification and development" (II, §12).〕 But he rejects the notion of "rights" and "justice" as grounds for this conception: "There is no equity in the universe."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §23.〕 Wells refers frequently in this part of ''First and Last Things'' to volumes he wrote in the preceding six or seven years on this perspective, addressing also such tactical questions as the attitude an individual intent on furthering social change ought to take toward existing institutions and conventions. "So far as he possibly can a man must conform to common prejudices, prevalent customs and all laws,—whatever his estimate of them may be."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', II, §29.〕 This book also contains a prophetic section on the nature of modern warfare, and several on women, sex, and marriage that were considered remarkably bold and provocative in Edwardian England. In the final book, Wells "shamelessly"〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', IV, §6.〕 offers some personal reflections about love, death, and life. "Passionate love" is "the intensest thing in life"; "It is the essential fact of love as I conceive it, that it breaks down the boundaries of self."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', IV, §2.〕 The concluding sentence of ''First and Last Things'' is: "In the ultimate I know, though I cannot prove my knowledge in any way whatever, that everything is right and all things mine."〔H.G. Wells, ''First and Last Things'', IV, §6.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「First and Last Things」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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