Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 11.pdf/145

 spirit of God in the hearts of men which may fail which may fail which seems to me to fail."

He paused. Dr. Barrack cleared his throat.

"I don't want to seem obdurate," said Dr. Barrack. "I want to respect deep feeling. One must respect deep feeling But for the life of me I can't put much meaning into this phrase, the spirit of God in the hearts of men. It's rather against my habits to worry a patient, but this is so interesting—this is an exceptional occasion. I would like to ask you, Mr. Huss—frankly—is there anything very much more to it, than a phrase?"

There was no answer.

"Words," said Mr. Dad; "joost words. If Mr. Huss had ever spent three months of war time running a big engineering factory"

"My mind is a sceptical mind," Dr. Barrack went on, after staring a moment to see if Mr. Dad meant to finish this sentence. "I want things I can feel and handle. I am an Agnostic by nature and habit and profession. A Doubting Thomas, born and bred. Well, I take it that about the universe Mr. Huss is very much of an Agnostic too. More so. He doubts more than I do. He doubts whether there is any trace of plan or purpose in it. What I call a Process, he calls a windy desolation. He sees Chaos still waiting for a creator. But then he sets up against that this undying fire of his, this spirit of God, which is