Olaf Stapledon writing to H G Wells, June 1937:

“I can’t help thinking about the universe as a whole, even though philosophically it is futile. So I let it come out as myth, and I find it gives me a sort of emotional stability, much needed in this age of muddles and passions.”

Yes, exactly. Because, as Stapledon put it in a review of Wells’ Star Begetter:

Wells “is too ready to assume that an idealisation of the positivistic, scientific mood, which is mainly a product of the nineteenth century, really can adequately suggest the essence of the truly human adult mentality.”

Plus ça change. Much credit to Matthew De Abaitua for finding these in the archives in the course of writing a new introduction to Stapledon’s Last and First Men.