Chapter The Curate, the Philosopher and God of The War of the Worlds - Study Guide by H G Wells

Question) to prevent him from drawing the Martians' attention: "In the silence of the night, with that sense of the nearness of God that sometimes comes into the stillness and the darkness, I stood my trial, my only trial, for that moment of wrath and fear." But the Narrator also supposes that perhaps the animals that humans had dominated "also prayed confidently to God." Again, Wells is distancing the Narrator's God from mankind's God of human arrogance and Lordship, and with regard to the curate the Narrator his putting himself at the justice of the Lord, rather than the flawed justice of humans. But perhaps most telling of all with regard to Wells and his deity, is the Narrator's declaration that the Martians were "slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth". One might suppose that such a evangelist of evolution such as Wells might be more likely to substitute 'God' with 'Nature'. But when the "torment was over", the Narrator looks forward to rebuilding and "At the thought I extended my hands towards the sky and began thanking God."