The Evangelist and the Sceptic

Abstract

Howard was realistically aware that resolute and tireless effort would be required of him if his scheme for a garden city as a first step on the path to social reform were to become anything more than an ephemeral entertainment for reviewers. He had already revealed some talent as a lobbyist of individuals and small groups; now he had to mount a public campaign. That he could summon from within himself the energy to face such a challenge and, in little more than six months, succeed in gathering around him a body of influential people organised together in an association dedicated to the realisation of his ideals was an astonishing achievement. He approached his task in the manner of the great Puritan evangelists with whom he identified himself in spirit. Like them he was sustained by a deep inner conviction that the truth he proclaimed would be perceived because, he believed, it ‘touched life at every point’.