Edward Morgan Forster was the only child of his architect father and his wife, who died when he was a baby. He was raised by his mother’s aunt. In conjunction with her money, which gave him plenty of leisure, she provided him with educational experiences such as living with her and his father in Germany, and then building a house in Surrey several years later and living there. Thus, life was a nebulous and obliging entity at the Forster household. Nor did E. M. Forster have to go out and work for a living as most of his colleagues did. Perhaps this is one reason for the liberal, unbounded outlook toward the world he has expressed in several of his books. When he wrote these, he had nothing to lose.
Forster’s famous dictum, “Only connect,” is what he feels life has misplaced. He believes that modern education will remedy the situation, connecting the core of man with the core of his civilization, the beast of man with the beauty of art. Such an ideology is reminiscent of an exhortation to a band of Puritans approaching the New World when they were told that they must consider that they shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. America did not live up to the challenge, though. They did not become that city when they first strode up the beacon hill. Many regard “What I believe” as Forster’s best and most complete work. During his long career, he wrote five novels, a biography, and the rest of his non-fiction was completed with a collection of essays that is sometimes scintillating, at times vitriolic, always suave.
In his extended essay, E.M. Forster lists his guiding lights, that is, principles guiding his view about life and directing his judgment on public and private affairs. The essay is a statement of his personal credo and an explanation of how it has evolved. What then does Forster believe in? He believes in personal relationships among human beings and government as a necessary evil. He believes that an individual should be allowed to do his own thinking, feeling, and deciding even if he runs counter to public opinion or state coercion. This belief in individual liberty is qualified, however, by his respect for other individuals and for the collective good. His belief in friendship or personal relationships led to seven of his nine novels, along with 'Maurice', of course, being comedies. In taking the position of a creed, Howards End is clearly the most extended and detailed exposition of Forster's moral beliefs.
In 'What I Believe', Forster classifies his beliefs into two categories: personal relationships, those between individual human beings, and that between the individual and the public or the government. Of the first, there is an extended exposition and the place of art in personal relationships and of personal relationships in art is detailed. As for the individual vis-à-vis the public, it is sufficient to know that the government should create as little hindrance as possible to the fullest freedom or full realization of the capabilities of the individuals. Further, it is to be guided by public opinion, for it would otherwise become a tyranny. Towards the end of the essay, Forster informally defines his fundamental moral impulse: give, forgive, celebrate. With the last term, we are in the domain of personal relationships while liberties of mischief committed in secret.
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