第5段
Now, this arresting, mental humility in Mr. H. G. Wells may be, like a great many other things that are vital and vivid, difficult to illustrate by examples, but if I were asked for an example of it, I should have no difficulty about which example to begin with. The most interesting thing about Mr. H. G. Wells is that he is the only one of his many brilliant contemporaries who has not stopped growing. One can lie awake at night and hear him grow. Of this growth the most evident manifestation is indeed a gradual change of opinions; but it is no mere change of opinions. It is not a perpetual leaping from one position to another like that of Mr. George Moore. It is a quite continuous advance along a quite solid road in a quite definable direction. But the chief proof that it is not a piece of fickleness and vanity is the fact that it has been upon the whole an advance from more startling opinions to more humdrum opinions. It has been even in some sense an advance from unconventional opinions to conventional opinions. This fact fixes Mr. Wells's honesty and proves him to be no poseur. Mr. Wells once held that the upper classes and the lower classes would be so much differentiated in the future that one class would eat the other. Certainly no paradoxical charlatan who had once found arguments for so startling a view would ever have deserted it except for something yet more startling. Mr. Wells has deserted it in favour of the blameless belief that both classes will be ultimately subordinated or assimilated to a sort of scientific middle class, a class of engineers. He has abandoned the sensational theory with the same honourable gravity and simplicity with which he adopted it. Then he thought it was true; now he thinks it is not true. He has come to the most dreadful conclusion a literary man can come to, the conclusion that the ordinary view is the right one. It is only the last and wildest kind of courage that can stand on a tower before ten thousand people and tell them that twice two is four.
威爾斯身上這個奇特、病態的謙卑，就好像其他偉大又生意盎然的事物一樣，十分難以用例子說明，但若要我舉例，我對於該從何著手可說是毫無困難。威爾斯這人最有趣的一點在於，他是他同輩人中唯一一個未曾停止成長的人。你夜間躺在床上都可聽見他茁壯生長的聲音。而對這成長最顯明的證據即在於，他的觀點日漸生發的轉變，但這轉變不只是改變而已，不像是喬治摩爾（George Moore，英國哲學家）永遠不停改變立場的那種轉變，而是一種朝著明確方向，沿著清楚路徑持續往前的轉變。而對於其轉變的本質非善變或虛榮的最主要證據，在於其觀點的轉變，整體而言，是從刺激驚人進步成乏味單調。甚至某種角度來說，是從脫離傳統到符合傳統。這事實印證威爾斯的誠實，證明他不是一個裝模作樣的人。他從前認為上層階級與下層階級之間的鴻溝難以跨越，甚至到了未來其中一方會消滅另一方。除非有更為驚世駭俗的觀點，否則肯定沒有哪一個從前提出這樣驚人見解的矛盾騙子，會願意捨棄這種觀點。但威爾斯卻揚棄了這觀點，選擇了一個無害的信念，認為兩個階級最終將降服或被融合同化成某種科學中產階級、工程師階級的一部分。他以用來採取此觀點的同樣的高尚嚴肅與天真，捨棄了這聳動的理論。從前他認為這理論是真的，現在他認為這理論不是真的。他領悟了任何文人所能領悟的最可怕真理，那就是，平凡人的觀點才是正確的。唯有擁有最出乎意料與最不符常規的勇氣，才能站在高塔面對千萬人，告訴他們，二乘以二等於四。
第6段
Mr. H. G. Wells exists at present in a gay and exhilarating progress of conservativism. He is finding out more and more that conventions, though silent, are alive. As good an example as any of this humility and sanity of his may be found in his change of view on the subject of science and marriage. He once held, I believe, the opinion which some singular sociologists still hold, that human creatures could successfully be paired and bred after the manner of dogs or horses. He no longer holds that view. Not only does he no longer hold that view, but he has written about it in "Mankind in the Making" with such smashing sense and humour, that I find it difficult to believe that anybody else can hold it either. It is true that his chief objection to the proposal is that it is physically impossible, which seems to me a very slight objection, and almost negligible compared with the others. The one objection to scientific marriage which is worthy of final attention is simply that such a thing could only be imposed on unthinkable slaves and cowards. I do not know whether the scientific marriage-mongers are right (as they say) or wrong (as Mr. Wells says) in saying that medical supervision would produce strong and healthy men. I am only certain that if it did, the first act of the strong and healthy men would be to smash the medical supervision.
威爾斯在今日以歡快、愉悅的進步式保守主義精神存在。他愈益發現常規雖沈默安靜，還尚有呼吸。一個可用於說明他的謙遜與心智清醒的適當例證，是他對於科學與婚姻的想法的轉變。我相信，他從前，就跟現今某些獨特不凡的社會學家仍舊相信的一樣，認為人類的結合能夠成功模仿狗或馬的交配型態。但如今他不再這樣認為。他不僅揚棄這想法，他還在「「製造人類」（Mankind in the Making）一書中，以一針見血的論述與幽默感提到這點，讓我都不禁懷疑怎麼可能會有人相信這種觀點。他反對這觀點最主要的依據在於，這在生理上不可行，而這反對論據，在我眼中看來其實較薄弱無力，跟其他反對論述比起來，甚至可說是無關緊要。在諸多對科學婚姻觀所提出的反對論述中，有一個論點值得一提，而這觀點不過只是簡單提出，這樣的做法只能強加在出乎人可理解的奴隸與懦夫身上。我是不知道到底是那些推銷科學婚姻的販子是正確的（如他們所言），還是錯的（如威爾斯所言），是否真的在醫療技術的介入下，將能產出強壯與健康的人類。我只確定，倘若這是真的，那這被生出的強壯健康人類所會採取的第一個舉動，就是摧毀這醫療技術。
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翻到最後，我聯想到"The boys"這齣美劇，劇情在說：當人類透過醫療技術造出生理上的「超人」時，一群生理上的「一般人」，拼命想著要如何摧毀這群超人，因他們為人類帶來無止盡的痛苦.....
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