My Favorite H.G. Wells Quote

The Island of Dr. Moreau is by far one of my favorite books. I first read it as a teenager and have probably read it more times throughout my life than any other book.

As a kid I even memorized the final paragraph. To me this single section of text reveals a profound insight to the human condition. It suggests that nothing we do can fulfill us—not acquiring wealth, not garnering fame, not being in control or chasing after power, status, love, sex, drugs, or anything else. It points to a source of peace far beyond ourselves to something much more esoteric.

The story in The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exploration of humanity's animalistic tendencies. Are we, by nature, animals, or are we held to a greater standard by the concept of morality? If morality does exist, who decides what is moral, and can it save us from ourselves?

In Wells' story this concept is presented by the character of Dr. Moreau, a mad scientist type who creates a race of humanoid beings by genetically modifying animals—pig-men, dog-men, leopard-men, and many others, though sometimes with nightmarish results.

The curious thing about this tale is that without the continued medicinal support of their creator the creatures revert to their more feral natures. Once they became self-aware enough to recognize the cruelty of what Moreau is doing they turn on him, but in destroying him they destroy what they need to survive, essentially destroying themselves.

At the end of the story the main character returns to civilization and struggles to find peace after all the horrors he witnessed on Moreau's island. He turns to astronomy and finds something he did not expect.

And I quote.

"Ah-hem."

Taps microphone.

"There is, though I do not know why there is or how there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope. I hope, or I could not live."

Hope.

Sometimes it's as vague as morality, but according to Wells we can't survive without it. It can't be found in what we can see, taste, or touch, not in our troubles or our worries or our fears, but from somewhere else.

And maybe it's found in different ways for different people, but this much is clear: as I watch our society destroy itself under its myriad of petty arguments on racism, gender issues, politics, ethics, religion, and more, it becomes increasingly apparent that people need to shift their focus. The more time we spend obsessing on all these issues, fostering dissension, hate, and fear, the further we fall from hope.