Introduction

Ralston College presents a lecture delivered on March 17th, 2022 by Theodore Dalrymple (aka Anthony Daniels) on H. G. Wells’s extraordinary 'scientific romance,' 'The Time Machine'.  A brilliant seer and prophet with a very pessimistic view of humanity, Wells was, nevertheless, a naive and shallow political thinker. The two sides of his mind—the artistic and the ideological; the 'unofficial' and the 'official'—were in conflict. In his writings and personal life, Wells embodied the cultural and philosophical schisms underlying the most important political and sociological questions of our time.  Wells's prescient insights, and troubling self-contradictions point to deep questions at the heart of human nature.