WHAT NOT
A PROPHETIC COMEDY
BY ROSE MACAULAY
AUTHOR OF "NON-COMBATANTS," "THE MAKING OF A BIGOT," ETC.
LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.
1918
TO
CIVIL SERVANTS
I HAVE KNOWN
"Wisdom is very unpleasant to the unlearned: he that is withoutunderstanding will not remain with her. She will lie upon himas a mighty stone of trial; and he will cast her from him ereit be long. For wisdom is according to her name, and she is notmanifest unto many....
"Desire not a multitude of unprofitable children...."
Jesus, Son of Sirach,
c. B.C. 150."It's domestickness of spirit, selvishnesse, which is the greatlet to Armies, Religions, and Kingdomes good."
W. Greenhill, 1643."It has come to a fine thing if people cannot live in theirhomes without being interfered with by the police.... You areupsetting the country altogether with your Food Orders and WhatNot."
Defendant in a Food-hoarding Case,
January, 1918.
NOTE.
As this book was written during the war, and intended prophetically, itsdelay until some months after the armistice calls for a word ofexplanation.
The book was ready for publication in November, 1918, when it wasdiscovered that a slight alteration in the text was essential, tosafeguard it against one of the laws of the realm. As the edition wasalready bound, this alteration has naturally taken a considerable time.
However, as the date of the happenings described in "What Not" isunspecified, it may still be regarded as a prophecy, not yet disproved.
APOLOGY
One cannot write for evermore of life in war-time, even if, as at timesseems possible, the war outlasts the youngest of us. Nor can one easilywrite of life as it was before this thing came upon us, for that is aqueer, half-remembered thing, to make one cry. This is a tale of lifeafter the war, in which alone there is hope. So it is, no doubt,inaccurate, too sanguine in part, too pessimistic in part, too foolishand too far removed from life as it will be lived even for a novel. Itis a shot in the dark, a bow drawn at a venture. But it is the best onecan do in the unfortunate circumstances, which make against all kinds oftruth, even that inferior kind which is called accuracy. Truth, indeed,seems to be one of the things, along with lives, wealth, joy, leisure,liberty, and forest trees, which has to be sacrificed on the altar ofthis all-taking war, this bitter, unsparing god, which may perhapsbefore the end strip us of everything we possess except the integrity ofour so fortunately situated island, our indomitable persistence in theteeth of odds, and the unstemmed eloquence of our leaders, all of whichwe shall surely retain.
This book is, anyhow, so far as it is anything beyond an attempt toamuse the writer, rather of the nature of suggestion than of prophecy,and many will think it a poor suggestion at that.