The Research Magnificent Prelude

The Prelude: On Fear and Aristocracy

1.
In Chapter one, we are introduced to our protagonist, Mr. William Porphyry Benham and his goals.  He has a quite odd goal of being noble or Aristocratic.  Hence the title, the Research Magnificent.  Mr. Benham has been taking notes his whole life with this goal in mind.

2.
Mr. White, who was lately a friend of the Mr. Benham, ponders the impossibility of turning the manuscript into a book.  Benham throughout his life has alterated the title, of the book, and presumably even the research he started out with.

3.

"He did not percieve there was any difference between the fool who says a thing in his heart and one who says it in the dormitory"

In this chapter H.G. Wells starts at the beginning of the Benham's life in boarding school.  We learn that he was very much a troublemaker in his youth.  So much so that he proclaimed, not to be a believer in God, just to mess with teacher and another boy.

4. 

Speaking of Fear: "Each time and always I have found that is has to be conquered afresh"

We learn that Benham feels his biggest weakness in achieving his goal of nobility is fear.  His fear of wild animals is the worse.  He fears boars, tigers, dogs, and bulls in particular.  Even his childhood adventure of running through the bull pen only magnified his fear.

5.
Benham also fears horses, after being told how one killed an elderly man, and with a care in the world, the horse went back to eating.  Even the neighing of a horse was unbearable to our protaganist.

6.
Benham is sent to Montana in Valais to recover from an influenza attack.  While there, he crosses the Bisse on a series of planks.  He is truly afraid, and even worse, he feels humiliated by a peasant that helps him cross.  Not being able to bear it, he crosses back over all alone.  Rather than being proud of conquering his fear, he's plaqued by nightmares.

7. & 8.
Benham proposes that the act is not fearful, but that the anticipation of the act is.  He relates he was in a plane crash where the pilot was killed, but he was able to walk away.  He never felt afraid when the plane was going down, even when he felt his arm break.  He still says he felt no fear.

9.
Benham contemplates pain is like fear.  At  a certain threshold, it's harmless.  At high enough levels, it can and will kill you.

10.
Animals are afraid to be alone, even solitary animals, like the tiger, retreat into the grasses to hide because it reminds them of hiding by their mother.  Much like the animals, according to Benham, man is also afraid alone.  Man is drawn to the mob, not because of the fear of the the mob fights, but because he is afraid of being along.  Take for instance, the anecdote of Rome the Lion hunter, who relates how the only time he was afraid was when he wandered off alone.  He had been charged by lions and elephants, but because he was with other people, he was not afraid.

This fear is demonstrated by Mr. White when he discovers that Benham has written about God.  White is afraid that Benham, whom Mr. White thought was an Atheist, might have different beliefs from Mr. White.  Mr. White is afraid he is alone in his beliefs.

11.
Benham also wanders into the jungle, alone, at night.  In the jungle, he encounterrs a multitude of wild animals.  Here he utters the most profound lines from the book so far.

"Was the jungle just an aimless pool of life that man must drain and clear away?  Or is it to have a use in the greater life of our race that now begins?  Will man value the jungle as he values the precipice, for the sake of his manhood?  Will he preserve it?"

I found it to be refreshing to see such concern for wild places over 100 years ago.  Benham then wanders into a glad where he meets a tiger.  His childhood fears personified.  Where he comes upon what can only be termed his new philosophy.  He rails against the cities of man.  Where this will lead?  We can only keep reading .

12.
Benham begins to doubt his night adventure until he reaches the place where he encounters the tiger.  There he finds tracks for himself and the tiger.  Benham makes his way back to camp.