,,preface ,,to ,,major ,,barbara3       
,,first ,,aid ,,to ,,critics   ,,bernard
 ,,shaw     ,n4,b4 ,the ,euripidean     
verses in the second act of ,major      
,barbara are not by me1 or even directly
 by ,euripides4 ,they are by ,professor 
,gilbert ,murray1 whose ,english version
 of ,the ,baccha2 came into our dramatic
 literature with all the impulsive power
 of an original work shortly before     
,major ,barbara was begun4 ,the play1   
indeed1 stands indebted to him in more  
ways than one4  ,g4 ,b4 ,s4    ,before  
dealing with the deeper aspects of      
,major ,barbara1 let me1 for the credit 
of ,english literature1 make a protest  
against an unpatriotic habit into which 
many of my critics have fallen4         
,whenever my view strikes them as being 
at all outside the range of1 say1 an    
ordinary suburban churchwarden1 they    
conclude that ,i am echoing             
,schopenhauer1 ,nietzsche1 ,ibsen1      
,strindberg1 ,tolstoy1 or some other    
heresiarch in northern or eastern       

,europe4  ,i confess there is something 
flattering in this simple faith in my   
accomplishment as a linguist and my     
erudition as a philosopher4 ,but ,i     
cannot tolerate the assumption that life
 and literature is so poor in these     
islands that we must go abroad for all  
dramatic material that is not common and
 all ideas that are not superficial4 ,i 
therefore venture to put my critics in  
possession of certain facts concerning  
my contact with modern ideas4  ,about   
half a century ago1 an ,irish novelist1 
,charles ,lever1 wrote a story entitled 
,a ,day's ,ride3 ,a ,life's ,romance4   
,it was published by ,charles ,dickens  
in ,household ,words1 and proved so     
strange to the public taste that        
,dickens pressed ,lever to make short   
work of it4 ,i read scraps of this novel
 when ,i was a child2 and it made an    
enduring impression on me4 ,the hero was
 a very romantic hero1 trying to live   
bravely1 chivalrously1 and powerfully by
 dint of mere romance-fed imagination1  

without courage1 without means1 without 
knowledge1 without skill1 without       
anything real except his bodily         
appetites4 ,even in my childhood ,i     
found in this poor devil's unsuccessful 
encounters with the facts of life1 a    
poignant quality that romantic fiction  
lacked4 ,the book1 in spite of its first
 failure1 is not dead3 ,i saw its title 
the other day in the catalogue of       
,tauchnitz4  ,now why is it that when ,i
 also deal in the tragi-comic irony of  
the conflict between real life and the  
romantic imagination1 no critic ever    
affiliates me to my countryman and      
immediate forerunner1 ,charles ,lever1  
whilst they confidently derive me from a
 ,norwegian author of whose language ,i 
do not know three words1 and of whom ,i 
knew nothing until years after the      
,shavian ,anschauung was already        
unequivocally declared in books full of 
what came1 ten years later1 to be       
perfunctorily labelled ,ibsenism4 ,i was
 not ,ibsenist even at second hand2 for 

,lever1 though he may have read ,henri  
,beyle1 alias ,stendhal1 certainly never
 read ,ibsen4 ,of the books that made   
,lever popular1 such as ,charles        
,o',malley and ,harry ,lorrequer1 ,i    
know nothing but the names and some of  
the illustrations4 ,but the story of the
 day's ride and life's romance of ,potts
 7claiming alliance with ,pozzo di      
,borgo7 caught me and fascinated me as  
something strange and significant1      
though ,i already knew all about        
,alnaschar and ,don ,quixote and ,simon 
,tappertit and many another romantic    
hero mocked by reality4 ,from the plays 
of ,aristophanes to the tales of        
,stevenson that mockery has been made   
familiar to all who are properly        
saturated with letters4  ,where1 then1  
was the novelty in ,lever's tale8       
,partly1 ,i think1 in a new seriousness 
in dealing with ,potts's disease4       
,formerly1 the contrast between madness 
and sanity was deemed comic3 ,hogarth   
shows us how fashionable people went in 

parties to ,bedlam to laugh at the      
lunatics4 ,i myself have had a village  
idiot exhibited to me as some thing     
irresistibly funny4 ,on the stage the   
madman was once a regular comic figure2 
that was how ,hamlet got his opportunity
 before ,shakespear touched him4 ,the   
originality of ,shakespear's version lay
 in his taking the lunatic              
sympathetically and seriously1 and      
thereby making an advance towards the   
eastern consciousness of the fact that  
lunacy may be inspiration in disguise1  
since a man who has more brains than his
 fellows necessarily appears as mad to  
them as one who has less4 ,but          
,shakespear did not do for ,pistol and  
,parolles what he did for ,hamlet4 ,the 
particular sort of madman they          
represented1 the romantic makebeliever1 
lay outside the pale of sympathy in     
literature3 he was pitilessly despised  
and ridiculed here as he was in the east
 under the name of ,alnaschar1 and was  
doomed to be1 centuries later1 under the

 name of ,simon ,tappertit4 ,when       
,cervantes relented over ,don ,quixote1 
and ,dickens relented over ,pickwick1   
they did not become impartial3 they     
simply changed sides1 and became friends
 and apologists where they had formerly 
been mockers4  ,in ,lever's story there 
is a real change of attitude4 ,there is 
no relenting towards ,potts3 he never   
gains our affections like ,don ,quixote 
and ,pickwick3 he has not even the      
infatuate courage of ,tappertit4 ,but we
 dare not laugh at him1 because1        
somehow1 we recognize ourselves in      
,potts4 ,we may1 some of us1 have enough
 nerve1 enough muscle1 enough luck1     
enough tact or skill or address or      
knowledge to carry things off better    
than he did2 to impose on the people who
 saw through him2 to fascinate ,katinka 
7who cut ,potts so ruthlessly at the end
 of the story72 but for all that1 we    
know that ,potts plays an enormous part 
in ourselves and in the world1 and that 
the social problem is not a problem of  

story-book heroes of the older pattern1 
but a problem of ,pottses1 and of how to
 make men of them4 ,to fall back on my  
old phrase1 we have the feeling--one    
that ,alnaschar1 ,pistol1 ,parolles1 and
 ,tappertit never gave us--that ,potts  
is a piece of really scientific natural 
history as distinguished from comic     
story telling4 ,his author is not       
throwing a stone at a creature of       
another and inferior order1 but making a
 confession1 with the effect that the   
stone hits everybody full in the        
conscience and causes their self-esteem 
to smart very sorely4 ,hence the failure
 of ,lever's book to please the readers 
of ,household ,words4 ,that pain in the 
self-esteem nowadays causes critics to  
raise a cry of ,ibsenism4 ,i therefore  
assure them that the sensation first    
came to me from ,lever and may have come
 to him from ,beyle1 or at least out of 
the ,stendhalian atmosphere4 ,i exclude 
the hypothesis of complete originality  
on ,lever's part1 because a man can no  

more be completely original in that     
sense than a tree can grow out of air4  
,another mistake as to my literary      
ancestry is made whenever ,i violate the
 romantic convention that all women are 
angels when they are not devils2 that   
they are better looking than men2 that  
their part in courtship is entirely     
passive2 and that the human female form 
is the most beautiful object in nature4 
,schopenhauer wrote a splenetic essay   
which1 as it is neither polite nor      
profound1 was probably intended to knock
 this nonsense violently on the head4 ,a
 sentence denouncing the idolized form  
as ugly has been largely quoted4 ,the   
,english critics have read that         
sentence2 and ,i must here affirm1 with 
as much gentleness as the implication   
will bear1 that it has yet to be proved 
that they have dipped any deeper4 ,at   
all events1 whenever an ,english        
playwright represents a young and       
marriageable woman as being anything but
 a romantic heroine1 he is disposed of  

without further thought as an echo of   
,schopenhauer4 ,my own case is a        
specially hard one1 because1 when ,i    
implore the critics who are obsessed    
with the ,schopenhaurian formula to     
remember that playwrights1 like         
sculptors1 study their figures from     
life1 and not from philosophic essays1  
they reply passionately that ,i am not a
 playwright and that my stage figures do
 not live4 ,but even so1 ,i may and do  
ask them why1 if they must give the     
credit of my plays to a philosopher1    
they do not give it to an ,english      
philosopher8 ,long before ,i ever read a
 word by ,schopenhauer1 or even knew    
whether he was a philosopher or a       
chemist1 the ,socialist revival of the  
eighteen-eighties brought me into       
contact1 both literary and personal1    
with ,mr ,ernest ,belfort ,bax1 an      
,english ,socialist and philosophic     
essayist1 whose handling of modern      
feminism would provoke romantic protests
 from ,schopenhauer himself1 or even    

,strindberg4 ,as a matter of fact ,i    
hardly noticed ,schopenhauer's          
disparagements of women when they came  
under my notice later on1 so thoroughly 
had ,mr ,bax familiarized me with the   
homoist attitude1 and forced me to      
recognize the extent to which public    
opinion1 and consequently legislation   
and jurisprudence1 is corrupted by      
feminist sentiment4  ,but ,mr ,bax's    
essays were not confined to the         
,feminist question4 ,he was a ruthless  
critic of current morality4 ,other      
writers have gained sympathy for        
dramatic criminals by eliciting the     
alleged soul of goodness in things evil2
 but ,mr ,bax would propound some quite 
undramatic and apparently shabby        
violation of our commercial law and     
morality1 and not merely defend it with 
the most disconcerting ingenuity1 but   
actually prove it to be a positive duty 
that nothing but the certainty of police
 persecution should prevent every       
right-minded man from at once doing on  

principle4 ,the ,socialists were        
naturally shocked1 being for the most   
part morbidly moral people2 but at all  
events they were saved later on from the
 delusion that nobody but ,nietzsche had
 ever challenged our mercanto-,christian
 morality4 ,i first heard the name of   
,nietzsche from a ,german mathematician1
 ,miss ,borchardt1 who had read my      
,quintessence of ,ibsenism1 and told me 
that she saw what ,i had been reading3  
namely1 ,nietzsche's ,jenseits von ,gut 
and ,bose4 ,which ,i protest ,i had     
never seen1 and could not have read with
 any comfort1 for want of the necessary 
,german1 if ,i had seen it4  ,nietzsche1
 like ,schopenhauer1 is the victim in   
,england of a single much quoted        
sentence containing the phrase big      
blonde beast4 ,on the strength of this  
alliteration it is assumed that         
,nietzsche gained his ,european         
reputation by a senseless glorification 
of selfish bullying as the rule of life1
 just as it is assumed1 on the strength 

of the single word ,superman            
7,ubermensch7 borrowed by me from       
,nietzsche1 that ,i look for the        
salvation of society to the despotism of
 a single ,napoleonic ,superman1 in     
spite of my careful demonstration of the
 folly of that outworn infatuation4 ,but
 even the less recklessly superficial   
critics seem to believe that the modern 
objection to ,christianity as a         
pernicious slave-morality was first put 
forward by ,nietzsche4 ,it was familiar 
to me before ,i ever heard of           
,nietzsche4 ,the late ,captain ,wilson1 
author of several queer pamphlets1      
propagandist of a metaphysical system   
called ,comprehensionism1 and inventor  
of the term ,crosstianity to distinguish
 the retrograde element in ,christendom1
 was wont thirty years ago1 in the      
discussions of the ,dialectical         
,society1 to protest earnestly against  
the beatitudes of the ,sermon on the    
,mount as excuses for cowardice and     
servility1 as destructive of our will1  

and consequently of our honor and       
manhood4 ,now it is true that ,captain  
,wilson's moral criticism of            
,christianity was not a historical      
theory of it1 like ,nietzsche's2 but    
this objection cannot be made to ,mr    
,stuart-,glennie1 the successor of      
,buckle as a philosophic historian1 who 
has devoted his life to the elaboration 
and propagation of his theory that      
,christianity is part of an epoch 7or   
rather an aberration1 since it began as 
recently as #fjjj;,,bc and is already   
collapsing7 produced by the necessity in
 which the numerically inferior white   
races found themselves to impose their  
domination on the colored races by      
priestcraft1 making a virtue and a      
popular religion of drudgery and        
submissiveness in this world not only as
 a means of achieving saintliness of    
character but of securing a reward in   
heaven4 ,here you have the              
slave-morality view formulated by a     
,scotch philosopher long before ,english

 writers began chattering about         
,nietzsche4  ,as ,mr ,stuart-,glennie   
traced the evolution of society to the  
conflict of races1 his theory made some 
sensation among ,socialists--that is1   
among the only people who were seriously
 thinking about historical evolution at 
all--by its collision with the          
class-conflict theory of ,karl ,marx4   
,nietzsche1 as ,i gather1 regarded the  
slave-morality as having been invented  
and imposed on the world by slaves      
making a virtue of necessity and a      
religion of their servitude4 ,mr        
,stuart-,glennie regards the            
slave-morality as an invention of the   
superior white race to subjugate the    
minds of the inferior races whom they   
wished to exploit1 and who would have   
destroyed them by force of numbers if   
their minds had not been subjugated4 ,as
 this process is in operation still1 and
 can be studied at first hand not only  
in our ,church schools and in the       
struggle between our modern proprietary 

classes and the proletariat1 but in the 
part played by ,christian missionaries  
in reconciling the black races of       
,africa to their subjugation by         
,european ,capitalism1 we can judge for 
ourselves whether the initiative came   
from above or below4 ,my object here is 
not to argue the historical point1 but  
simply to make our theatre critics      
ashamed of their habit of treating      
,britain as an intellectual void1 and   
assuming that every philosophical idea1 
every historic theory1 every criticism  
of our moral1 religious and juridical   
institutions1 must necessarily be either
 imported from abroad1 or else a        
fantastic sally 7in rather questionable 
taste7 totally unrelated to the existing
 body of thought4 ,i urge them to       
remember that this body of thought is   
the slowest of growths and the rarest of
 blossomings1 and that if there is such 
a thing on the philosophic plane as a   
matter of course1 it is that no         
individual can make more than a minute  

contribution to it4 ,in fact1 their     
conception of clever persons            
parthenogenetically bringing forth      
complete original cosmogonies by dint of
 sheer brilliancy is part of that       
ignorant credulity which is the despair 
of the honest philosopher1 and the      
opportunity of the religious impostor4  
,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,st4 ,,andrew      
,,undershaft  ,it is this credulity that
 drives me to help my critics out with  
,major ,barbara by telling them what to 
say about it4 ,in the millionaire       
,undershaft ,i have represented a man   
who has become intellectually and       
spiritually as well as practically      
conscious of the irresistible natural   
truth which we all abhor and repudiate3 
to wit1 that the greatest of evils and  
the worst of crimes is poverty1 and that
 our first duty--a duty to which every  
other consideration should be           
sacrificed--is not to be poor4 ,poor but
 honest1 the respectable poor1 and such 
phrases are as intolerable and as       

immoral as drunken but amiable1         
fraudulent but a good after-dinner      
speaker1 splendidly criminal1 or the    
like4 ,security1 the chief pretence of  
civilization1 cannot exist where the    
worst of dangers1 the danger of poverty1
 hangs over everyone's head1 and where  
the alleged protection of our persons   
from violence is only an accidental     
result of the existence of a police     
force whose real business is to force   
the poor man to see his children starve 
whilst idle people overfeed pet dogs    
with the money that might feed and      
clothe them4  ,it is exceedingly        
difficult to make people realize that an
 evil is an evil4 ,for instance1 we     
seize a man and deliberately do him a   
malicious injury3 say1 imprison him for 
years4 ,one would not suppose that it   
needed any exceptional clearness of wit 
to recognize in this an act of          
diabolical cruelty4 ,but in ,england    
such a recognition provokes a stare of  
surprise1 followed by an explanation    

that the outrage is punishment or       
justice or something else that is all   
right1 or perhaps by a heated attempt to
 argue that we should all be robbed and 
murdered in our beds if such senseless  
villainies as sentences of imprisonment 
were not committed daily4 ,it is useless
 to argue that even if this were true1  
which it is not1 the alternative to     
adding crimes of our own to the crimes  
from which we suffer is not helpless    
submission4 ,chickenpox is an evil2 but 
if ,i were to declare that we must      
either submit to it or else repress it  
sternly by seizing everyone who suffers 
from it and punishing them by           
inoculation with smallpox1 ,i should be 
laughed at2 for though nobody could deny
 that the result would be to prevent    
chickenpox to some extent by making     
people avoid it much more carefully1 and
 to effect a further apparent prevention
 by making them conceal it very         
anxiously1 yet people would have sense  
enough to see that the deliberate       

propagation of smallpox was a creation  
of evil1 and must therefore be ruled out
 in favor of purely humane and hygienic 
measures4 ,yet in the precisely parallel
 case of a man breaking into my house   
and stealing my wife's diamonds ,i am   
expected as a matter of course to steal 
ten years of his life1 torturing him all
 the time4 ,if he tries to defeat that  
monstrous retaliation by shooting me1 my
 survivors hang him4 ,the net result    
suggested by the police statistics is   
that we inflict atrocious injuries on   
the burglars we catch in order to make  
the rest take effectual precautions     
against detection2 so that instead of   
saving our wives' diamonds from burglary
 we only greatly decrease our chances of
 ever getting them back1 and increase   
our chances of being shot by the robber 
if we are unlucky enough to disturb him 
at his work4  ,but the thoughtless      
wickedness with which we scatter        
sentences of imprisonment1 torture in   
the solitary cell and on the plank bed1 

and flogging1 on moral invalids and     
energetic rebels1 is as nothing compared
 to the stupid levity with which we     
tolerate poverty as if it were either a 
wholesome tonic for lazy people or else 
a virtue to be embraced as ,st ,francis 
embraced it4 ,if a man is indolent1 let 
him be poor4 ,if he is drunken1 let him 
be poor4 ,if he is not a gentleman1 let 
him be poor4 ,if he is addicted to the  
fine arts or to pure science instead of 
to trade and finance1 let him be poor4  
,if he chooses to spend his urban       
eighteen shillings a week or his        
agricultural thirteen shillings a week  
on his beer and his family instead of   
saving it up for his old age1 let him be
 poor4 ,let nothing be done for the     
undeserving3 let him be poor4 ,serve him
 right6 ,also--somewhat                 
inconsistently--blessed are the poor6   
,now what does this ,let ,him ,be ,poor 
mean8 ,it means let him be weak4 ,let   
him be ignorant4 ,let him become a      
nucleus of disease4 ,let him be a       

standing exhibition and example of      
ugliness and dirt4 ,let him have rickety
 children4 ,let him be cheap and let him
 drag his fellows down to his price by  
selling himself to do their work4 ,let  
his habitations turn our cities into    
poisonous congeries of slums4 ,let his  
daughters infect our young men with the 
diseases of the streets and his sons    
revenge him by turning the nation's     
manhood into scrofula1 cowardice1       
cruelty1 hypocrisy1 political           
imbecility1 and all the other fruits of 
oppression and malnutrition4 ,let the   
undeserving become still less deserving2
 and let the deserving lay up for       
himself1 not treasures in heaven1 but   
horrors in hell upon earth4 ,this being 
so1 is it really wise to let him be     
poor8 ,would he not do ten times less   
harm as a prosperous burglar1           
incendiary1 ravisher or murderer1 to the
 utmost limits of humanity's            
comparatively negligible impulses in    
these directions8 ,suppose we were to   

abolish all penalties for such          
activities1 and decide that poverty is  
the one thing we will not tolerate--that
 every adult with less than1 say1 #cfe  
pounds a year1 shall be painlessly but  
inexorably killed1 and every hungry half
 naked child forcibly fattened and      
clothed1 would not that be an enormous  
improvement on our existing system1     
which has already destroyed so many     
civilizations1 and is visibly destroying
 ours in the same way8  ,is there any   
radicle of such legislation in our      
parliamentary system8 ,well1 there are  
two measures just sprouting in the      
political soil1 which may conceivably   
grow to something valuable4 ,one is the 
institution of a ,legal ,minimum ,wage4 
,the other1 ,old ,age ,pensions4 ,but   
there is a better plan than either of   
these4 ,some time ago ,i mentioned the  
subject of ,universal ,old ,age         
,pensions to my fellow ,socialist ,mr   
,cobden-,sanderson1 famous as an        
artist-craftsman in bookbinding and     

printing4 ,why not ,universal ,pensions 
for ,life8 said ,cobden-,sanderson4 ,in 
saying this1 he solved the industrial   
problem at a stroke4 ,at present we say 
callously to each citizen3 ,if you want 
money1 earn it1 as if his having or not 
having it were a matter that concerned  
himself alone4 ,we do not even secure   
for him the opportunity of earning it3  
on the contrary1 we allow our industry  
to be organized in open dependence on   
the maintenance of a reserve army of    
unemployed for the sake of elasticity4  
,the sensible course would be           
,cobden-,sanderson's3 that is1 to give  
every man enough to live well on1 so as 
to guarantee the community against the  
possibility of a case of the malignant  
disease of poverty1 and then            
7necessarily7 to see that he earned it4 
,undershaft1 the hero of ,major         
,barbara1 is simply a man who1 having   
grasped the fact that poverty is a      
crime1 knows that when society offered  
him the alternative of poverty or a     

lucrative trade in death and            
destruction1 it offered him1 not a      
choice between opulent villainy and     
humble virtue1 but between energetic    
enterprise and cowardly infamy4 ,his    
conduct stands the ,kantian test1 which 
,peter ,shirley's does not4 ,peter      
,shirley is what we call the honest poor
 man4 ,undershaft is what we call the   
wicked rich one3 ,shirley is ,lazarus1  
,undershaft ,dives4 ,well1 the misery of
 the world is due to the fact that the  
great mass of men act and believe as    
,peter ,shirley acts and believes4 ,if  
they acted and believed as ,undershaft  
acts and believes1 the immediate result 
would be a revolution of incalculable   
beneficence4 ,to be wealthy1 says       
,undershaft1 is with me a point of honor
 for which ,i am prepared to kill at the
 risk of my own life4 ,this preparedness
 is1 as he says1 the final test of      
sincerity4 ,like ,froissart's medieval  
hero1 who saw that to rob and pill was a
 good life1 he is not the dupe of that  

public sentiment against killing which  
is propagated and endowed by people who 
would otherwise be killed themselves1 or
 of the mouth-honor paid to poverty and 
obedience by rich and insubordinate     
do-nothings who want to rob the poor    
without courage and command them without
 superiority4 ,froissart's knight1 in   
placing the achievement of a good life  
before all the other duties--which      
indeed are not duties at all when they  
conflict with it1 but plain             
wickednesses--behaved bravely1          
admirably1 and1 in the final analysis1  
public-spiritedly4 ,medieval society1 on
 the other hand1 behaved very badly     
indeed in organizing itself so stupidly 
that a good life could be achieved by   
robbing and pilling4 ,if the knight's   
contemporaries had been all as resolute 
as he1 robbing and pilling would have   
been the shortest way to the gallows1   
just as1 if we were all as resolute and 
clearsighted as ,undershaft1 an attempt 
to live by means of what is called an   

independent income would be the shortest
 way to the lethal chamber4 ,but as1    
thanks to our political imbecility and  
personal cowardice 7fruits of poverty   
both71 the best imitation of a good life
 now procurable is life on an           
independent income1 all sensible people 
aim at securing such an income1 and are1
 of course1 careful to legalize and     
moralize both it and all the actions and
 sentiments which lead to it and support
 it as an institution4 ,what else can   
they do8 ,they know1 of course1 that    
they are rich because others are poor4  
,but they cannot help that3 it is for   
the poor to repudiate poverty when they 
have had enough of it4 ,the thing can be
 done easily enough3 the demonstrations 
to the contrary made by the economists1 
jurists1 moralists and sentimentalists  
hired by the rich to defend them1 or    
even doing the work gratuitously out of 
sheer folly and abjectness1 impose only 
on the hirers4  ,the reason why the     
independent income-tax payers are not   

solid in defence of their position is   
that since we are not medieval rovers   
through a sparsely populated country1   
the poverty of those we rob prevents our
 having the good life for which we      
sacrifice them4 ,rich men or aristocrats
 with a developed sense of life--men    
like ,ruskin and ,william ,morris and   
,kropotkin--have enormous social        
appetites and very fastidious personal  
ones4 ,they are not content with        
handsome houses3 they want handsome     
cities4 ,they are not content with      
bediamonded wives and blooming          
daughters3 they complain because the    
charwoman is badly dressed1 because the 
laundress smells of gin1 because the    
sempstress is anemic1 because every man 
they meet is not a friend and every     
woman not a romance4 ,they turn up their
 noses at their neighbors' drains1 and  
are made ill by the architecture of     
their neighbors' houses4 ,trade patterns
 made to suit vulgar people do not      
please them 7and they can get nothing   

else73 they cannot sleep nor sit at ease
 upon slaughtered cabinet makers'       
furniture4 ,the very air is not good    
enough for them3 there is too much      
factory smoke in it4 ,they even demand  
abstract conditions3 justice1 honor1 a  
noble moral atmosphere1 a mystic nexus  
to replace the cash nexus4 ,finally they
 declare that though to rob and pill    
with your own hand on horseback and in  
steel coat may have been a good life1 to
 rob and pill by the hands of the       
policeman1 the bailiff1 and the soldier1
 and to underpay them meanly for doing  
it1 is not a good life1 but rather fatal
 to all possibility of even a tolerable 
one4 ,they call on the poor to revolt1  
and1 finding the poor shocked at their  
ungentlemanliness1 despairingly revile  
the proletariat for its damned          
wantlessness 7verdammte                 
,bedurfnislosigkeit74  ,so far1 however1
 their attack on society has lacked     
simplicity4 ,the poor do not share their
 tastes nor understand their            

art-criticisms4 ,they do not want the   
simple life1 nor the esthetic life2 on  
the contrary1 they want very much to    
wallow in all the costly vulgarities    
from which the elect souls among the    
rich turn away with loathing4 ,it is by 
surfeit and not by abstinence that they 
will be cured of their hankering after  
unwholesome sweets4 ,what they do       
dislike and despise and are ashamed of  
is poverty4 ,to ask them to fight for   
the difference between the ,christmas   
number of the ,illustrated ,london ,news
 and the ,kelmscott ,chaucer is silly3  
they prefer the ,news4 ,the difference  
between a stockbroker's cheap and dirty 
starched white shirt and collar and the 
comparatively costly and carefully dyed 
blue shirt of ,william ,morris is a     
difference so disgraceful to ,morris in 
their eyes that if they fought on the   
subject at all1 they would fight in     
defence of the starch4 ,cease to be     
slaves1 in order that you may become    
cranks is not a very inspiring call to  

arms2 nor is it really improved by      
substituting saints for cranks4 ,both   
terms denote men of genius2 and the     
common man does not want to live the    
life of a man of genius3 he would much  
rather live the life of a pet collie if 
that were the only alternative4 ,but he 
does want more money4 ,whatever else he 
may be vague about1 he is clear about   
that4 ,he may or may not prefer ,major  
,barbara to the ,drury ,lane pantomime2 
but he always prefers five hundred      
pounds to five hundred shillings4  ,now 
to deplore this preference as sordid1   
and teach children that it is sinful to 
desire money1 is to strain towards the  
extreme possible limit of impudence in  
lying1 and corruption in hypocrisy4 ,the
 universal regard for money is the one  
hopeful fact in our civilization1 the   
one sound spot in our social conscience4
 ,money is the most important thing in  
the world4 ,it represents health1       
strength1 honor1 generosity and beauty  
as conspicuously and undeniably as the  

want of it represents illness1 weakness1
 disgrace1 meanness and ugliness4 ,not  
the least of its virtues is that it     
destroys base people as certainly as it 
fortifies and dignifies noble people4   
,it is only when it is cheapened to     
worthlessness for some1 and made        
impossibly dear to others1 that it      
becomes a curse4 ,in short1 it is a     
curse only in such foolish social       
conditions that life itself is a curse4 
,for the two things are inseparable3    
money is the counter that enables life  
to be distributed socially3 it is life  
as truly as sovereigns and bank notes   
are money4 ,the first duty of every     
citizen is to insist on having money on 
reasonable terms2 and this demand is not
 complied with by giving four men three 
shillings each for ten or twelve hours' 
drudgery and one man a thousand pounds  
for nothing4 ,the crying need of the    
nation is not for better morals1 cheaper
 bread1 temperance1 liberty1 culture1   
redemption of fallen sisters and erring 

brothers1 nor the grace1 love and       
fellowship of the ,trinity1 but simply  
for enough money4 ,and the evil to be   
attacked is not sin1 suffering1 greed1  
priestcraft1 kingcraft1 demagogy1       
monopoly1 ignorance1 drink1 war1        
pestilence1 nor any other of the        
scapegoats which reformers sacrifice1   
but simply poverty4  ,once take your    
eyes from the ends of the earth and fix 
them on this truth just under your nose2
 and ,andrew ,undershaft's views will   
not perplex you in the least4 ,unless   
indeed his constant sense that he is    
only the instrument of a ,will or ,life 
,force which uses him for purposes wider
 than his own1 may puzzle you4 ,if so1  
that is because you are walking either  
in artificial ,darwinian darkness1 or to
 mere stupidity4 ,all genuinely         
religious people have that              
consciousness4 ,to them ,undershaft the 
,mystic will be quite intelligible1 and 
his perfect comprehension of his        
daughter the ,salvationist and her lover

 the ,euripidean republican natural and 
inevitable4 ,that1 however1 is not new1 
even on the stage4 ,what is new1 as far 
as ,i know1 is that article in          
,undershaft's religion which recognizes 
in ,money the first need and in poverty 
the vilest sin of man and society4      
,this dramatic conception has not1 of   
course1 been attained per saltum4 ,nor  
has it been borrowed from ,nietzsche or 
from any man born beyond the ,channel4  
,the late ,samuel ,butler1 in his own   
department the greatest ,english writer 
of the latter half of the ,,xix century1
 steadily inculcated the necessity and  
morality of a conscientious             
,laodiceanism in religion and of an     
earnest and constant sense of the       
importance of money4 ,it drives one     
almost to despair of ,english literature
 when one sees so extraordinary a study 
of ,english life as ,butler's posthumous
 ,way of ,all ,flesh making so little   
impression that when1 some years later1 
,i produce plays in which ,butler's     

extraordinarily fresh1 free and         
future-piercing suggestions have an     
obvious share1 ,i am met with nothing   
but vague cacklings about ,ibsen and    
,nietzsche1 and am only too thankful    
that they are not about ,alfred de      
,musset and ,georges ,sand4 ,really1 the
 ,english do not deserve to have great  
men4 ,they allowed ,butler to die       
practically unknown1 whilst ,i1 a       
comparatively insignificant ,irish      
journalist1 was leading them by the nose
 into an advertisement of me which has  
made my own life a burden4 ,in ,sicily  
there is a ,via ,samuele ,butler4 ,when 
an ,english tourist sees it1 he either  
asks ,who the devil was ,samuele        
,butler8 or wonders why the ,sicilians  
should perpetuate the memory of the     
author of ,hudibras4  ,well1 it cannot  
be denied that the ,english are only too
 anxious to recognize a man of genius if
 somebody will kindly point him out to  
them4 ,having pointed myself out in this
 manner with some success1 ,i now point 

out ,samuel ,butler1 and trust that in  
consequence ,i shall hear a little less 
in future of the novelty and foreign    
origin of the ideas which are now making
 their way into the ,english theatre    
through plays written by ,socialists4   
,there are living men whose originality 
and power are as obvious as ,butler's2  
and when they die that fact will be     
discovered4 ,meanwhile ,i recommend them
 to insist on their own merits as an    
important part of their own business4   
,,the ,,salvation ,,army  ,when ,major  
,barbara was produced in ,london1 the   
second act was reported in an important 
northern newspaper as a withering attack
 on the ,salvation ,army1 and the       
despairing ejaculation of ,barbara      
deplored by a ,london daily as a        
tasteless blasphemy4 ,and they were set 
right1 not by the professed critics of  
the theatre1 but by religious and       
philosophical publicists like ,sir      
,oliver ,lodge and ,dr ,stanton ,coit1  
and strenuous ,nonconformist journalists

 like ,mr ,william ,stead1 who not only 
understood the act as well as the       
,salvationists themselves1 but also saw 
it in its relation to the religious life
 of the nation1 a life which seems to   
lie not only outside the sympathy of    
many of our theatre critics1 but        
actually outside their knowledge of     
society4 ,indeed nothing could be more  
ironically curious than the             
confrontation ,major ,barbara effected  
of the theatre enthusiasts with the     
religious enthusiasts4 ,on the one hand 
was the playgoer1 always seeking        
pleasure1 paying exorbitantly for it1   
suffering unbearable discomforts for it1
 and hardly ever getting it4 ,on the    
other hand was the ,salvationist1       
repudiating gaiety and courting effort  
and sacrifice1 yet always in the wildest
 spirits1 laughing1 joking1 singing1    
rejoicing1 drumming1 and tambourining3  
his life flying by in a flash of        
excitement1 and his death arriving as a 
climax of triumph4 ,and1 if you please1 

the playgoer despising the ,salvationist
 as a joyless person1 shut out from the 
heaven of the theatre1 self-condemned to
 a life of hideous gloom2 and the       
,salvationist mourning over the playgoer
 as over a prodigal with vine leaves in 
his hair1 careering outrageously to hell
 amid the popping of champagne corks and
 the ribald laughter of sirens6 ,could  
misunderstanding be more complete1 or   
sympathy worse misplaced8  ,fortunately1
 the ,salvationists are more accessible 
to the religious character of the drama 
than the playgoers to the gay energy and
 artistic fertility of religion4 ,they  
can see1 when it is pointed out to them1
 that a theatre1 as a place where two or
 three are gathered together1 takes from
 that divine presence an inalienable    
sanctity of which the grossest and      
profanest farce can no more deprive it  
than a hypocritical sermon by a snobbish
 bishop can desecrate ,westminster      
,abbey4 ,but in our professional        
playgoers this indispensable preliminary

 conception of sanctity seems wanting4  
,they talk of actors as mimes and       
mummers1 and1 ,i fear1 think of dramatic
 authors as liars and pandars1 whose    
main business is the voluptuous soothing
 of the tired city speculator when what 
he calls the serious business of the day
 is over4 ,passion1 the life of drama1  
means nothing to them but primitive     
sexual excitement3 such phrases as      
impassioned poetry or passionate love of
 truth have fallen quite out of their   
vocabulary and been replaced by         
passional crime and the like4 ,they     
assume1 as far as ,i can gather1 that   
people in whom passion has a larger     
scope are passionless and therefore     
uninteresting4 ,consequently they come  
to think of religious people as people  
who are not interesting and not amusing4
 ,and so1 when ,barbara cuts the regular
 ,salvation ,army jokes1 and snatches a 
kiss from her lover across his drum1 the
 devotees of the theatre think they     
ought to appear shocked1 and conclude   

that the whole play is an elaborate     
mockery of the ,army4 ,and then either  
hypocritically rebuke me for mocking1 or
 foolishly take part in the supposed    
mockery6 ,even the handful of mentally  
competent critics got into difficulties 
over my demonstration of the economic   
deadlock in which the ,salvation ,army  
finds itself4 ,some of them thought that
 the ,army would not have taken money   
from a distiller and a cannon founder3  
others thought it should not have taken 
it3 all assumed more or less definitely 
that it reduced itself to absurdity or  
hypocrisy by taking it4 ,on the first   
point the reply of the ,army itself was 
prompt and conclusive4 ,as one of its   
officers said1 they would take money    
from the devil himself and be only too  
glad to get it out of his hands and into
 ,god's4 ,they gratefully acknowledged  
that publicans not only give them money 
but allow them to collect it in the     
bar--sometimes even when there is a     
,salvation meeting outside preaching    

teetotalism4 ,in fact1 they questioned  
the verisimilitude of the play1 not     
because ,mrs ,baines took the money1 but
 because ,barbara refused it4  ,on the  
point that the ,army ought not to take  
such money1 its justification is        
obvious4 ,it must take the money because
 it cannot exist without money1 and     
there is no other money to be had4      
,practically all the spare money in the 
country consists of a mass of rent1     
interest1 and profit1 every penny of    
which is bound up with crime1 drink1    
prostitution1 disease1 and all the evil 
fruits of poverty1 as inextricably as   
with enterprise1 wealth1 commercial     
probity1 and national prosperity4 ,the  
notion that you can earmark certain     
coins as tainted is an unpractical      
individualist superstition4 ,none the   
less the fact that all our money is     
tainted gives a very severe shock to    
earnest young souls when some dramatic  
instance of the taint first makes them  
conscious of it4 ,when an enthusiastic  

young clergyman of the ,established     
,church first realizes that the         
,ecclesiastical ,commissioners receive  
the rents of sporting public houses1    
brothels1 and sweating dens2 or that the
 most generous contributor at his last  
charity sermon was an employer trading  
in female labor cheapened by            
prostitution as unscrupulously as a     
hotel keeper trades in waiters' labor   
cheapened by tips1 or commissionaire's  
labor cheapened by pensions2 or that the
 only patron who can afford to rebuild  
his church or his schools or give his   
boys' brigade a gymnasium or a library  
is the son-in-law of a ,chicago meat    
,king1 that young clergyman has1 like   
,barbara1 a very bad quarter hour4 ,but 
he cannot help himself by refusing to   
accept money from anybody except sweet  
old ladies with independent incomes and 
gentle and lovely ways of life4 ,he has 
only to follow up the income of the     
sweet ladies to its industrial source1  
and there he will find ,mrs ,warren's   

profession and the poisonous canned meat
 and all the rest of it4 ,his own       
stipend has the same root4 ,he must     
either share the world's guilt or go to 
another planet4 ,he must save the       
world's honor if he is to save his own4 
,this is what all the ,churches find    
just as the ,salvation ,army and        
,barbara find it in the play4 ,her      
discovery that she is her father's      
accomplice2 that the ,salvation ,army is
 the accomplice of the distiller and the
 dynamite maker2 that they can no more  
escape one another than they can escape 
the air they breathe2 that there is no  
salvation for them through personal     
righteousness1 but only through the     
redemption of the whole nation from its 
vicious1 lazy1 competitive anarchy3 this
 discovery has been made by everyone    
except the ,pharisees and 7apparently7  
the professional playgoers1 who still   
wear their ,tom ,hood shirts and        
underpay their washerwomen without the  
slightest misgiving as to the elevation 

of their private characters1 the purity 
of their private atmospheres1 and their 
right to repudiate as foreign to        
themselves the coarse depravity of the  
garret and the slum4 ,not that they mean
 any harm3 they only desire to be1 in   
their little private way1 what they call
 gentlemen4 ,they do not understand     
,barbara's lesson because they have not1
 like her1 learnt it by taking their    
part in the larger life of the nation4  
,,barbara',s ,,return ,,to ,,the        
,,colors4  ,barbara's return to the     
colors may yet provide a subject for the
 dramatic historian of the future4 ,to  
go back to the ,salvation ,army with the
 knowledge that even the ,salvationists 
themselves are not saved yet2 that      
poverty is not blessed1 but a most      
damnable sin2 and that when ,general    
,booth chose ,blood and ,fire for the   
emblem of ,salvation instead of the     
,cross1 he was perhaps better inspired  
than he knew3 such knowledge1 for the   
daughter of ,andrew ,undershaft1 will   

clearly lead to something hopefuller    
than distributing bread and treacle at  
the expense of ,bodger4  ,it is a very  
significant thing1 this instinctive     
choice of the military form of          
organization1 this substitution of the  
drum for the organ1 by the ,salvation   
,army4 ,does it not suggest that the    
,salvationists divine that they must    
actually fight the devil instead of     
merely praying at him8 ,at present1 it  
is true1 they have not quite ascertained
 his correct address4 ,when they do1    
they may give a very rude shock to that 
sense of security which he has gained   
from his experience of the fact that    
hard words1 even when uttered by        
eloquent essayists and lecturers1 or    
carried unanimously at enthusiastic     
public meetings on the motion of eminent
 reformers1 break no bones4 ,it has been
 said that the ,french ,revolution was  
the work of ,voltaire1 ,rousseau and the
 ,encyclopedists4 ,it seems to me to    
have been the work of men who had       

observed that virtuous indignation1     
caustic criticism1 conclusive argument  
and instructive pamphleteering1 even    
when done by the most earnest and witty 
literary geniuses1 were as useless as   
praying1 things going steadily from bad 
to worse whilst the ,social ,contract   
and the pamphlets of ,voltaire were at  
the height of their vogue4 ,eventually1 
as we know1 perfectly respectable       
citizens and earnest philanthropists    
connived at the ,september massacres    
because hard experience had convinced   
them that if they contented themselves  
with appeals to humanity and patriotism1
 the aristocracy1 though it would read  
their appeals with the greatest         
enjoyment and appreciation1 flattering  
and admiring the writers1 would none the
 less continue to conspire with foreign 
monarchists to undo the revolution and  
restore the old system with every       
circumstance of savage vengeance and    
ruthless repression of popular          
liberties4  ,the nineteenth century saw 

the same lesson repeated in ,england4   
,it had its ,utilitarians1 its          
,christian ,socialists1 its ,fabians    
7still extant73 it had ,bentham1 ,mill1 
,dickens1 ,ruskin1 ,carlyle1 ,butler1   
,henry ,george1 and ,morris4 ,and the   
end of all their efforts is the ,chicago
 described by ,mr ,upton ,sinclair1 and 
the ,london in which the people who pay 
to be amused by my dramatic             
representation of ,peter ,shirley turned
 out to starve at forty because there   
are younger slaves to be had for his    
wages1 do not take1 and have not the    
slightest intention of taking1 any      
effective step to organize society in   
such a way as to make that everyday     
infamy impossible4 ,i1 who have preached
 and pamphleteered like any             
,encyclopedist1 have to confess that my 
methods are no use1 and would be no use 
if ,i were ,voltaire1 ,rousseau1        
,bentham1 ,mill1 ,dickens1 ,carlyle1    
,ruskin1 ,george1 ,butler1 and ,morris  
all rolled into one1 with ,euripides1   

,more1 ,moliere1 ,shakespear1           
,beaumarchais1 ,swift1 ,goethe1 ,ibsen1 
,tolstoy1 ,moses and the prophets all   
thrown in 7as indeed in some sort ,i    
actually am1 standing as ,i do on all   
their shoulders74 ,the problem being to 
make heroes out of cowards1 we paper    
apostles and artist-magicians have      
succeeded only in giving cowards all the
 sensations of heroes whilst they       
tolerate every abomination1 accept every
 plunder1 and submit to every           
oppression4 ,christianity1 in making a  
merit of such submission1 has marked    
only that depth in the abyss at which   
the very sense of shame is lost4 ,the   
,christian has been like ,dickens'      
doctor in the debtor's prison1 who tells
 the newcomer of its ineffable peace and
 security3 no duns2 no tyrannical       
collectors of rates1 taxes1 and rent2 no
 importunate hopes nor exacting duties2 
nothing but the rest and safety of      
having no further to fall4  ,yet in the 
poorest corner of this soul-destroying  

,christendom vitality suddenly begins to
 germinate again4 ,joyousness1 a sacred 
gift long dethroned by the hellish      
laughter of derision and obscenity1     
rises like a flood miraculously out of  
the fetid dust and mud of the slums2    
rousing marches and impetuous dithyrambs
 rise to the heavens from people among  
whom the depressing noise called sacred 
music is a standing joke2 a flag with   
,blood and ,fire on it is unfurled1 not 
in murderous rancor1 but because fire is
 beautiful and blood a vital and        
splendid red2 ,fear1 which we flatter by
 calling ,self1 vanishes2 and           
transfigured men and women carry their  
gospel through a transfigured world1    
calling their leader ,general1          
themselves captains and brigadiers1 and 
their whole body an ,army3 praying1 but 
praying only for refreshment1 for       
strength to fight1 and for needful      
,,money 7a notable sign1 that72         
preaching1 but not preaching submission2
 daring ill-usage and abuse1 but not    

putting up with more of it than is      
inevitable2 and practising what the     
world will let them practise1 including 
soap and water1 color and music4 ,there 
is danger in such ,activity2 and where  
there is danger there is hope4 ,our     
present security is nothing1 and can be 
nothing1 but evil made irresistible4    
,,weaknesses ,,of ,,the ,,salvation     
,,army4  ,for the present1 however1 it  
is not my business to flatter the       
,salvation ,army4 ,rather must ,i point 
out to it that it has almost as many    
weaknesses as the ,church of ,england   
itself4 ,it is building up a business   
organization which will compel it       
eventually to see that its present staff
 of enthusiast-commanders shall be      
succeeded by a bureaucracy of men of    
business who will be no better than     
bishops1 and perhaps a good deal more   
unscrupulous4 ,that has always happened 
sooner or later to great orders founded 
by saints2 and the order founded by ,st 
,william ,booth is not exempt from the  

same danger4 ,it is even more dependent 
than the ,church on rich people who     
would cut off supplies at once if it    
began to preach that indispensable      
revolt against poverty which must also  
be a revolt against riches4 ,it is      
hampered by a heavy contingent of pious 
elders who are not really ,salvationists
 at all1 but ,evangelicals of the old   
school4 ,it still1 as ,commissioner     
,howard affirms1 sticks to ,moses1 which
 is flat nonsense at this time of day if
 the ,commissioner means1 as ,i am      
afraid he does1 that the ,book of       
,genesis contains a trustworthy         
scientific account of the origin of     
species1 and that the god to whom       
,jephthah sacrificed his daughter is any
 less obviously a tribal idol than      
,dagon or ,chemosh4  ,further1 there is 
still too much other-worldliness about  
the ,army4 ,like ,frederick's grenadier1
 the ,salvationist wants to live for    
ever 7the most monstrous way of crying  
for the moon72 and though it is evident 

to anyone who has ever heard ,general   
,booth and his best officers that they  
would work as hard for human salvation  
as they do at present if they believed  
that death would be the end of them     
individually1 they and their followers  
have a bad habit of talking as if the   
,salvationists were heroically enduring 
a very bad time on earth as an          
investment which will bring them in     
dividends later on in the form1 not of a
 better life to come for the whole      
world1 but of an eternity spent by      
themselves personally in a sort of bliss
 which would bore any active person to a
 second death4 ,surely the truth is that
 the ,salvationists are unusually happy 
people4 ,and is it not the very         
diagnostic of true salvation that it    
shall overcome the fear of death8 ,now  
the man who has come to believe that    
there is no such thing as death1 the    
change so called being merely the       
transition to an exquisitely happy and  
utterly careless life1 has not overcome 

the fear of death at all3 on the        
contrary1 it has overcome him so        
completely that he refuses to die on any
 terms whatever4 ,i do not call a       
,salvationist really saved until he is  
ready to lie down cheerfully on the     
scrap heap1 having paid scot and lot and
 something over1 and let his eternal    
life pass on to renew its youth in the  
battalions of the future4  ,then there  
is the nasty lying habit called         
confession1 which the ,army encourages  
because it lends itself to dramatic     
oratory1 with plenty of thrilling       
incident4 ,for my part1 when ,i hear a  
convert relating the violences and oaths
 and blasphemies he was guilty of before
 he was saved1 making out that he was a 
very terrible fellow then and is the    
most contrite and chastened of          
,christians now1 ,i believe him no more 
than ,i believe the millionaire who says
 he came up to ,london or ,chicago as a 
boy with only three halfpence in his    
pocket4 ,salvationists have said to me  

that ,barbara in my play would never    
have been taken in by so transparent a  
humbug as ,snobby ,price2 and certainly 
,i do not think ,snobby could have taken
 in any experienced ,salvationist on a  
point on which the ,salvationist did not
 wish to be taken in4 ,but on the point 
of conversion all ,salvationists wish to
 be taken in2 for the more obvious the  
sinner the more obvious the miracle of  
his conversion4 ,when you advertize a   
converted burglar or reclaimed drunkard 
as one of the attractions at an         
experience meeting1 your burglar can    
hardly have been too burglarious or your
 drunkard too drunken4 ,as long as such 
attractions are relied on1 you will have
 your ,snobbies claiming to have beaten 
their mothers when they were as a matter
 of prosaic fact habitually beaten by   
them1 and your ,rummies of the tamest   
respectability pretending to a past of  
reckless and dazzling vice4 ,even when  
confessions are sincerely autobiographic
 there is no reason to assume at once   

that the impulse to make them is pious  
or the interest of the hearers          
wholesome4 ,it might as well be assumed 
that the poor people who insist on      
showing appalling ulcers to district    
visitors are convinced hygienists1 or   
that the curiosity which sometimes      
welcomes such exhibitions is a pleasant 
and creditable one4 ,one is often       
tempted to suggest that those who pester
 our police superintendents with        
confessions of murder might very wisely 
be taken at their word and executed1    
except in the few cases in which a real 
murderer is seeking to be relieved of   
his guilt by confession and expiation4  
,for though ,i am not1 ,i hope1 an      
unmerciful person1 ,i do not think that 
the inexorability of the deed once done 
should be disguised by any ritual1      
whether in the confessional or on the   
scaffold4  ,and here my disagreement    
with the ,salvation ,army1 and with all 
propagandists of the ,cross 7to which ,i
 object as ,i object to all gibbets7    

becomes deep indeed4 ,forgiveness1      
absolution1 atonement1 are figments3    
punishment is only a pretence of        
cancelling one crime by another2 and you
 can no more have forgiveness without   
vindictiveness than you can have a cure 
without a disease4 ,you will never get a
 high morality from people who conceive 
that their misdeeds are revocable and   
pardonable1 or in a society where       
absolution and expiation are officially 
provided for us all4 ,the demand may be 
very real2 but the supply is spurious4  
,thus ,bill ,walker1 in my play1 having 
assaulted the ,salvation ,lass1         
presently finds himself overwhelmed with
 an intolerable conviction of sin under 
the skilled treatment of ,barbara4      
,straightway he begins to try to        
unassault the lass and deruffianize his 
deed1 first by getting punished for it  
in kind1 and1 when that relief is denied
 him1 by fining himself a pound to      
compensate the girl4 ,he is foiled both 
ways4 ,he finds the ,salvation ,army as 

inexorable as fact itself4 ,it will not 
punish him3 it will not take his money4 
,it will not tolerate a redeemed        
ruffian3 it leaves him no means of      
salvation except ceasing to be a        
ruffian4 ,in doing this1 the ,salvation 
,army instinctively grasps the central  
truth of ,christianity and discards its 
central superstition3 that central truth
 being the vanity of revenge and        
punishment1 and that central            
superstition the salvation of the world 
by the gibbet4  ,for1 be it noted1 ,bill
 has assaulted an old and starving woman
 also2 and for this worse offence he    
feels no remorse whatever1 because she  
makes it clear that her malice is as    
great as his own4 ,let her have the law 
of me1 as she said she would1 says      
,bill3 what ,i done to her is no more on
 what you might call my conscience than 
sticking a pig4 ,this shows a perfectly 
natural and wholesome state of mind on  
his part4 ,the old woman1 like the law  
she threatens him with1 is perfectly    

ready to play the game of retaliation   
with him3 to rob him if he steals1 to   
flog him if he strikes1 to murder him if
 he kills4 ,by example and precept the  
law and public opinion teach him to     
impose his will on others by anger1     
violence1 and cruelty1 and to wipe off  
the moral score by punishment4 ,that is 
sound ,crosstianity4 ,but this          
,crosstianity has got entangled with    
something which ,barbara calls          
,christianity1 and which unexpectedly   
causes her to refuse to play the        
hangman's game of ,satan casting out    
,satan4 ,she refuses to prosecute a     
drunken ruffian2 she converses on equal 
terms with a blackguard whom no lady    
could be seen speaking to in the public 
street3 in short1 she behaves as        
illegally and unbecomingly as possible  
under the circumstances4 ,bill's        
conscience reacts to this just as       
naturally as it does to the old woman's 
threats4 ,he is placed in a position of 
unbearable moral inferiority1 and       

strives by every means in his power to  
escape from it1 whilst he is still quite
 ready to meet the abuse of the old     
woman by attempting to smash a mug on   
her face4 ,and that is the triumphant   
justification of ,barbara's             
,christianity as against our system of  
judicial punishment and the vindictive  
villain-thrashings and poetic justice of
 the romantic stage4  ,for the credit of
 literature it must be pointed out that 
the situation is only partly novel4     
,victor ,hugo long ago gave us the epic 
of the convict and the bishop's         
candlesticks1 of the ,crosstian         
policeman annihilated by his encounter  
with the ,christian ,valjean4 ,but ,bill
 ,walker is not1 like ,valjean1         
romantically changed from a demon into  
an angel4 ,there are millions of ,bill  
,walkers in all classes of society      
to-day2 and the point which ,i1 as a    
professor of natural psychology1 desire 
to demonstrate1 is that ,bill1 without  
any change in his character whatsoever1 

will react one way to one sort of       
treatment and another way to another4   
,in proof ,i might point to the         
sensational object lesson provided by   
our commercial millionaires to-day4     
,they begin as brigands3 merciless1     
unscrupulous1 dealing out ruin and death
 and slavery to their competitors and   
employees1 and facing desperately the   
worst that their competitors can do to  
them4 ,the history of the ,english      
factories1 the ,american trusts1 the    
exploitation of ,african gold1 diamonds1
 ivory and rubber1 outdoes in villainy  
the worst that has ever been imagined of
 the buccaneers of the ,spanish ,main4  
,captain ,kidd would have marooned a    
modern ,trust magnate for conduct       
unworthy of a gentleman of fortune4 ,the
 law every day seizes on unsuccessful   
scoundrels of this type and punishes    
them with a cruelty worse than their    
own1 with the result that they come out 
of the torture house more dangerous than
 they went in1 and renew their evil     

doing 7nobody will employ them at       
anything else7 until they are again     
seized1 again tormented1 and again let  
loose1 with the same result4  ,but the  
successful scoundrel is dealt with very 
differently1 and very ,christianly4 ,he 
is not only forgiven3 he is idolized1   
respected1 made much of1 all but        
worshipped4 ,society returns him good   
for evil in the most extravagant        
overmeasure4 ,and with what result8 ,he 
begins to idolize himself1 to respect   
himself1 to live up to the treatment he 
receives4 ,he preaches sermons2 he      
writes books of the most edifying advice
 to young men1 and actually persuades   
himself that he got on by taking his own
 advice2 he endows educational          
institutions2 he supports charities2 he 
dies finally in the odor of sanctity1   
leaving a will which is a monument of   
public spirit and bounty4 ,and all this 
without any change in his character4    
,the spots of the leopard and the       
stripes of the tiger are as brilliant as

 ever2 but the conduct of the world     
towards him has changed2 and his conduct
 has changed accordingly4 ,you have only
 to reverse your attitude towards       
him--to lay hands on his property1      
revile him1 assault him1 and he will be 
a brigand again in a moment1 as ready to
 crush you as you are to crush him1 and 
quite as full of pretentious moral      
reasons for doing it4  ,in short1 when  
,major ,barbara says that there are no  
scoundrels1 she is right3 there are no  
absolute scoundrels1 though there are   
impracticable people of whom ,i shall   
treat presently4 ,every practicable man 
7and woman7 is a potential scoundrel and
 a potential good citizen4 ,what a man  
is depends on his character2 but what he
 does1 and what we think of what he     
does1 depends on his circumstances4 ,the
 characteristics that ruin a man in one 
class make him eminent in another4 ,the 
characters that behave differently in   
different circumstances behave alike in 
similar circumstances4 ,take a common   

,english character like that of ,bill   
,walker4 ,we meet ,bill everywhere3 on  
the judicial bench1 on the episcopal    
bench1 in the ,privy ,council1 at the   
,war ,office and ,admiralty1 as well as 
in the ,old ,bailey dock or in the ranks
 of casual unskilled labor4 ,and the    
morality of ,bill's characteristics     
varies with these various circumstances4
 ,the faults of the burglar are the     
qualities of the financier3 the manners 
and habits of a duke would cost a city  
clerk his situation4 ,in short1 though  
character is independent of             
circumstances1 conduct is not2 and our  
moral judgments of character are not3   
both are circumstantial4 ,take any      
condition of life in which the          
circumstances are for a mass of men     
practically alike3 felony1 the ,house of
 ,lords1 the factory1 the stables1 the  
gipsy encampment or where you please6   
,in spite of diversity of character and 
temperament1 the conduct and morals of  
the individuals in each group are as    

predicable and as alike in the main as  
if they were a flock of sheep1 morals   
being mostly only social habits and     
circumstantial necessities4 ,strong     
people know this and count upon it4 ,in 
nothing have the master-minds of the    
world been distinguished from the       
ordinary suburban season-ticket holder  
more than in their straightforward      
perception of the fact that mankind is  
practically a single species1 and not a 
menagerie of gentlemen and bounders1    
villains and heroes1 cowards and        
daredevils1 peers and peasants1 grocers 
and aristocrats1 artisans and laborers1 
washerwomen and duchesses1 in which all 
the grades of income and caste represent
 distinct animals who must not be       
introduced to one another or intermarry4
 ,napoleon constructing a galaxy of     
generals and courtiers1 and even of     
monarchs1 out of his collection of      
social nobodies2 ,julius ,caesar        
appointing as governor of ,egypt the son
 of a freedman--one who but a short time

 before would have been legally         
disqualified for the post even of a     
private soldier in the ,roman army2     
,louis ,,xi making his barber his privy 
councillor3 all these had in their      
different ways a firm hold of the       
scientific fact of human equality1      
expressed by ,barbara in the ,christian 
formula that all men are children of one
 father4 ,a man who believes that men   
are naturally divided into upper and    
lower and middle classes morally is     
making exactly the same mistake as the  
man who believes that they are naturally
 divided in the same way socially4 ,and 
just as our persistent attempts to found
 political institutions on a basis of   
social inequality have always produced  
long periods of destructive friction    
relieved from time to time by violent   
explosions of revolution2 so the        
attempt--will ,americans please note--to
 found moral institutions on a basis of 
moral inequality can lead to nothing but
 unnatural ,reigns of the ,saints       

relieved by licentious ,restorations2 to
 ,americans who have made divorce a     
public institution turning the face of  
,europe into one huge sardonic smile by 
refusing to stay in the same hotel with 
a ,russian man of genius who has changed
 wives without the sanction of ,south   
,dakota2 to grotesque hypocrisy1 cruel  
persecution1 and final utter confusion  
of conventions and compliances with     
benevolence and respectability4 ,it is  
quite useless to declare that all men   
are born free if you deny that they are 
born good4 ,guarantee a man's goodness  
and his liberty will take care of       
itself4 ,to guarantee his freedom on    
condition that you approve of his moral 
character is formally to abolish all    
freedom whatsoever1 as every man's      
liberty is at the mercy of a moral      
indictment1 which any fool can trump up 
against everyone who violates custom1   
whether as a prophet or as a rascal4    
,this is the lesson ,democracy has to   
learn before it can become anything but 

the most oppressive of all the          
priesthoods4  ,let us now return to     
,bill ,walker and his case of conscience
 against the ,salvation ,army4 ,major   
,barbara1 not being a modern ,tetzel1 or
 the treasurer of a hospital1 refuses to
 sell ,bill absolution for a sovereign4 
,unfortunately1 what the ,army can      
afford to refuse in the case of ,bill   
,walker1 it cannot refuse in the case of
 ,bodger4 ,bodger is master of the      
situation because he holds the purse    
strings4 ,strive as you will1 says      
,bodger1 in effect3 me you cannot do    
without4 ,you cannot save ,bill ,walker 
without my money4 ,and the ,army        
answers1 quite rightly under the        
circumstances1 ,we will take money from 
the devil himself sooner than abandon   
the work of ,salvation4 ,so ,bodger pays
 his conscience-money and gets the      
absolution that is refused to ,bill4 ,in
 real life ,bill would perhaps never    
know this4 ,but ,i1 the dramatist1 whose
 business it is to show the connexion   

between things that seem apart and      
unrelated in the haphazard order of     
events in real life1 have contrived to  
make it known to ,bill1 with the result 
that the ,salvation ,army loses its hold
 of him at once4  ,but ,bill may not be 
lost1 for all that4 ,he is still in the 
grip of the facts and of his own        
conscience1 and may find his taste for  
blackguardism permanently spoiled4      
,still1 ,i cannot guarantee that happy  
ending4 ,let anyone walk through the    
poorer quarters of our cities when the  
men are not working1 but resting and    
chewing the cud of their reflections2   
and he will find that there is one      
expression on every mature face3 the    
expression of cynicism4 ,the discovery  
made by ,bill ,walker about the         
,salvation ,army has been made by every 
one of them4 ,they have found that every
 man has his price2 and they have been  
foolishly or corruptly taught to        
mistrust and despise him for that       
necessary and salutary condition of     

social existence4 ,when they learn that 
,general ,booth1 too1 has his price1    
they do not admire him because it is a  
high one1 and admit the need of         
organizing society so that he shall get 
it in an honorable way3 they conclude   
that his character is unsound and that  
all religious men are hypocrites and    
allies of their sweaters and oppressors4
 ,they know that the large subscriptions
 which help to support the ,army are    
endowments1 not of religion1 but of the 
wicked doctrine of docility in poverty  
and humility under oppression2 and they 
are rent by the most agonizing of all   
the doubts of the soul1 the doubt       
whether their true salvation must not   
come from their most abhorrent passions1
 from murder1 envy1 greed1 stubbornness1
 rage1 and terrorism1 rather than from  
public spirit1 reasonableness1 humanity1
 generosity1 tenderness1 delicacy1 pity 
and kindness4 ,the confirmation of that 
doubt1 at which our newspapers have been
 working so hard for years past1 is the 

morality of militarism2 and the         
justification of militarism is that     
circumstances may at any time make it   
the true morality of the moment4 ,it is 
by producing such moments that we       
produce violent and sanguinary          
revolutions1 such as the one now in     
progress in ,russia and the one which   
,capitalism in ,england and ,america is 
daily and diligently provoking4  ,at    
such moments it becomes the duty of the 
,churches to evoke all the powers of    
destruction against the existing order4 
,but if they do this1 the existing order
 must forcibly suppress them4 ,churches 
are suffered to exist only on condition 
that they preach submission to the      
,state as at present capitalistically   
organized4 ,the ,church of ,england     
itself is compelled to add to the       
thirty-six articles in which it         
formulates its religious tenets1 three  
more in which it apologetically protests
 that the moment any of these articles  
comes in conflict with the ,state it is 

to be entirely renounced1 abjured1      
violated1 abrogated and abhorred1 the   
policeman being a much more important   
person than any of the ,persons of the  
,trinity4 ,and this is why no tolerated 
,church nor ,salvation ,army can ever   
win the entire confidence of the poor4  
,it must be on the side of the police   
and the military1 no matter what it     
believes or disbelieves2 and as the     
police and the military are the         
instruments by which the rich rob and   
oppress the poor 7on legal and moral    
principles made for the purpose71 it is 
not possible to be on the side of the   
poor and of the police at the same time4
 ,indeed the religious bodies1 as the   
almoners of the rich1 become a sort of  
auxiliary police1 taking off the        
insurrectionary edge of poverty with    
coals and blankets1 bread and treacle1  
and soothing and cheering the victims   
with hopes of immense and inexpensive   
happiness in another world when the     
process of working them to premature    

death in the service of the rich is     
complete in this4    ,,christianity     
,,and ,,anarchism  ,such is the false   
position from which neither the         
,salvation ,army nor the ,church of     
,england nor any other religious        
organization whatever can escape except 
through a reconstitution of society4    
,nor can they merely endure the ,state  
passively1 washing their hands of its   
sins4 ,the ,state is constantly forcing 
the consciences of men by violence and  
cruelty4 ,not content with exacting     
money from us for the maintenance of its
 soldiers and policemen1 its gaolers and
 executioners1 it forces us to take an  
active personal part in its proceedings 
on pain of becoming ourselves the       
victims of its violence4 ,as ,i write   
these lines1 a sensational example is   
given to the world4 ,a royal marriage   
has been celebrated1 first by sacrament 
in a cathedral1 and then by a bullfight 
having for its main amusement the       
spectacle of horses gored and           

disembowelled by the bull1 after which1 
when the bull is so exhausted as to be  
no longer dangerous1 he is killed by a  
cautious matador4 ,but the ironic       
contrast between the bullfight and the  
sacrament of marriage does not move     
anyone4 ,another contrast--that between 
the splendor1 the happiness1 the        
atmosphere of kindly admiration         
surrounding the young couple1 and the   
price paid for it under our abominable  
social arrangements in the misery1      
squalor and degradation of millions of  
other young couples--is drawn at the    
same moment by a novelist1 ,mr ,upton   
,sinclair1 who chips a corner of the    
veneering from the huge meat packing    
industries of ,chicago1 and shows it to 
us as a sample of what is going on all  
over the world underneath the top layer 
of prosperous plutocracy4 ,one man is   
sufficiently moved by that contrast to  
pay his own life as the price of one    
terrible blow at the responsible        
parties4 ,unhappily his poverty leaves  

him also ignorant enough to be duped by 
the pretence that the innocent young    
bride and bridegroom1 put forth and     
crowned by plutocracy as the heads of a 
,state in which they have less personal 
power than any policeman1 and less      
influence than any chairman of a trust1 
are responsible4 ,at them accordingly he
 launches his sixpennorth of fulminate1 
missing his mark1 but scattering the    
bowels of as many horses as any bull in 
the arena1 and slaying twenty-three     
persons1 besides wounding ninety-nine4  
,and of all these1 the horses alone are 
innocent of the guilt he is avenging3   
had he blown all ,madrid to atoms with  
every adult person in it1 not one could 
have escaped the charge of being an     
accessory1 before1 at1 and after the    
fact1 to poverty and prostitution1 to   
such wholesale massacre of infants as   
,herod never dreamt of1 to plague1      
pestilence and famine1 battle1 murder   
and lingering death--perhaps not one who
 had not helped1 through example1       

precept1 connivance1 and even clamor1 to
 teach the dynamiter his well-learnt    
gospel of hatred and vengeance1 by      
approving every day of sentences of     
years of imprisonment so infernal in its
 unnatural stupidity and panic-stricken 
cruelty1 that their advocates can       
disavow neither the dagger nor the bomb 
without stripping the mask of justice   
and humanity from themselves also4 ,be  
it noted that at this very moment there 
appears the biography of one of our     
dukes1 who1 being ,scotch1 could argue  
about politics1 and therefore stood out 
as a great brain among our aristocrats4 
,and what1 if you please1 was his       
grace's favorite historical episode1    
which he declared he never read without 
intense satisfaction8 ,why1 the young   
,general ,bonapart's pounding of the    
,paris mob to pieces in #agie1 called in
 playful approval by our respectable    
classes the whiff of grapeshot1 though  
,napoleon1 to do him justice1 took a    
deeper view of it1 and would fain have  

had it forgotten4 ,and since the ,duke  
of ,argyll was not a demon1 but a man of
 like passions with ourselves1 by no    
means rancorous or cruel as men go1 who 
can doubt that all over the world       
proletarians of the ducal kidney are now
 revelling in the whiff of dynamite 7the
 flavor of the joke seems to evaporate a
 little1 does it not87 because it was   
aimed at the class they hate even as our
 argute duke hated what he called the   
mob4  ,in such an atmosphere there can  
be only one sequel to the ,madrid       
explosion4 ,all ,europe burns to emulate
 it4 ,vengeance6 ,more blood6 ,tear the 
,anarchist beast to shreds4 ,drag him to
 the scaffold4 ,imprison him for life4  
,let all civilized ,states band together
 to drive his like off the face of the  
earth2 and if any ,state refuses to     
join1 make war on it4 ,this time the    
leading ,london newspaper1 anti-,liberal
 and therefore anti-,russian in         
politics1 does not say ,serve you right 
to the victims1 as it did1 in effect1   

when ,bobrikofl2 and ,de ,plehve1 and   
,grand ,duke ,sergius1 were in the same 
manner unofficially fulminated into     
fragments4 ,no3 fulminate our rivals in 
,asia by all means1 ye brave ,russian   
revolutionaries2 but to aim at an       
,english princess-monstrous6 hideous6   
hound down the wretch to his doom2 and  
observe1 please1 that we are a civilized
 and merciful people1 and1 however much 
we may regret it1 must not treat him as 
,ravaillac and ,damiens were treated4   
,and meanwhile1 since we have not yet   
caught him1 let us soothe our quivering 
nerves with the bullfight1 and comment  
in a courtly way on the unfailing tact  
and good taste of the ladies of our     
royal houses1 who1 though presumably of 
full normal natural tenderness1 have    
been so effectually broken in to        
fashionable routine that they can be    
taken to see the horses slaughtered as  
helplessly as they could no doubt be    
taken to a gladiator show1 if that      
happened to be the mode just now4       

,strangely enough1 in the midst of this 
raging fire of malice1 the one man who  
still has faith in the kindness and     
intelligence of human nature is the     
fulminator1 now a hunted wretch1 with   
nothing1 apparently1 to secure his      
triumph over all the prisons and        
scaffolds of infuriate ,europe except   
the revolver in his pocket and his      
readiness to discharge it at a moment's 
notice into his own or any other head4  
,think of him setting out to find a     
gentleman and a ,christian in the       
multitude of human wolves howling for   
his blood4 ,think also of this3 that at 
the very first essay he finds what he   
seeks1 a veritable grandee of ,spain1 a 
noble1 high-thinking1 unterrified1      
malice-void soul1 in the guise--of all  
masquerades in the world6--of a modern  
editor4 ,the ,anarchist wolf1 flying    
from the wolves of plutocracy1 throws   
himself on the honor of the man4 ,the   
man1 not being a wolf 7nor a ,london    
editor71 and therefore not having enough

 sympathy with his exploit to be made   
bloodthirsty by it1 does not throw him  
back to the pursuing wolves--gives him1 
instead1 what help he can to escape1 and
 sends him off acquainted at last with a
 force that goes deeper than dynamite1  
though you cannot make so much of it for
 sixpence4 ,that righteous and honorable
 high human deed is not wasted on       
,europe1 let us hope1 though it benefits
 the fugitive wolf only for a moment4   
,the plutocratic wolves presently smell 
him out4 ,the fugitive shoots the       
unlucky wolf whose nose is nearest2     
shoots himself2 and then convinces the  
world1 by his photograph1 that he was no
 monstrous freak of reversion to the    
tiger1 but a good looking young man with
 nothing abnormal about him except his  
appalling courage and resolution 7that  
is why the terrified shriek ,coward at  
him73 one to whom murdering a happy     
young couple on their wedding morning   
would have been an unthinkably unnatural
 abomination under rational and kindly  

human circumstances4  ,then comes the   
climax of irony and blind stupidity4    
,the wolves1 balked of their meal of    
fellow-wolf1 turn on the man1 and       
proceed to torture him1 after their     
manner1 by imprisonment1 for refusing to
 fasten his teeth in the throat of the  
dynamiter and hold him down until they  
came to finish him4  ,thus1 you see1 a  
man may not be a gentleman nowadays even
 if he wishes to4 ,as to being a        
,christian1 he is allowed some latitude 
in that matter1 because1 ,i repeat1     
,christianity has two faces4 ,popular   
,christianity has for its emblem a      
gibbet1 for its chief sensation a       
sanguinary execution after torture1 for 
its central mystery an insane vengeance 
bought off by a trumpery expiation4 ,but
 there is a nobler and profounder       
,christianity which affirms the sacred  
mystery of ,equality1 and forbids the   
glaring futility and folly of vengeance1
 often politely called punishment or    
justice4 ,the gibbet part of            

,christianity is tolerated4 ,the other  
is criminal felony4 ,connoisseurs in    
irony are well aware of the fact that   
the only editor in ,england who         
denounces punishment as radically wrong1
 also repudiates ,christianity2 calls   
his paper ,the ,freethinker2 and has    
been imprisoned for two years for       
blasphemy4    ,,sane ,,conclusions  ,and
 now ,i must ask the excited reader not 
to lose his head on one side or the     
other1 but to draw a sane moral from    
these grim absurdities4 ,it is not good 
sense to propose that laws against crime
 should apply to principals only and not
 to accessories whose consent1 counsel1 
or silence may secure impunity to the   
principal4 ,if you institute punishment 
as part of the law1 you must punish     
people for refusing to punish4 ,if you  
have a police1 part of its duty must be 
to compel everybody to assist the       
police4 ,no doubt if your laws are      
unjust1 and your policemen agents of    
oppression1 the result will be an       

unbearable violation of the private     
consciences of citizens4 ,but that      
cannot be helped3 the remedy is1 not to 
license everybody to thwart the law if  
they please1 but to make laws that will 
command the public assent1 and not to   
deal cruelly and stupidly with          
lawbreakers4 ,everybody disapproves of  
burglars2 but the modern burglar1 when  
caught and overpowered by a householder 
usually appeals1 and often1 let us hope1
 with success1 to his captor not to     
deliver him over to the useless horrors 
of penal servitude4 ,in other cases the 
lawbreaker escapes because those who    
could give him up do not consider his   
breech of the law a guilty action4      
,sometimes1 even1 private tribunals are 
formed in opposition to the official    
tribunals2 and these private tribunals  
employ assassins as executioners1 as was
 done1 for example1 by ,mahomet before  
he had established his power officially1
 and by the ,ribbon lodges of ,ireland  
in their long struggle with the         

landlords4 ,under such circumstances1   
the assassin goes free although         
everybody in the district knows who he  
is and what he has done4 ,they do not   
betray him1 partly because they justify 
him exactly as the regular ,government  
justifies its official executioner1 and 
partly because they would themselves be 
assassinated if they betrayed him3      
another method learnt from the official 
government4 ,given a tribunal1 employing
 a slayer who has no personal quarrel   
with the slain2 and there is clearly no 
moral difference between official and   
unofficial killing4  ,in short1 all men 
are anarchists with regard to laws which
 are against their consciences1 either  
in the preamble or in the penalty4 ,in  
,london our worst anarchists are the    
magistrates1 because many of them are so
 old and ignorant that when they are    
called upon to administer any law that  
is based on ideas or knowledge less than
 half a century old1 they disagree with 
it1 and being mere ordinary homebred    

private ,englishmen without any respect 
for law in the abstract1 naively set the
 example of violating it4 ,in this      
instance the man lags behind the law2   
but when the law lags behind the man1 he
 becomes equally an anarchist4 ,when    
some huge change in social conditions1  
such as the industrial revolution of the
 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries1   
throws our legal and industrial         
institutions out of date1 ,anarchism    
becomes almost a religion4 ,the whole   
force of the most energetic geniuses of 
the time in philosophy1 economics1 and  
art1 concentrates itself on             
demonstrations and reminders that       
morality and law are only conventions1  
fallible and continually obsolescing4   
,tragedies in which the heroes are      
bandits1 and comedies in which          
law-abiding and conventionally moral    
folk are compelled to satirize          
themselves by outraging the conscience  
of the spectators every time they do    
their duty1 appear simultaneously with  

economic treatises entitled ,what is    
,property8 ,theft6 and with histories of
 ,the ,conflict between ,religion and   
,science4  ,now this is not a healthy   
state of things4 ,the advantages of     
living in society are proportionate1 not
 to the freedom of the individual from a
 code1 but to the complexity and        
subtlety of the code he is prepared not 
only to accept but to uphold as a matter
 of such vital importance that a        
lawbreaker at large is hardly to be     
tolerated on any plea4 ,such an attitude
 becomes impossible when the only men   
who can make themselves heard and       
remembered throughout the world spend   
all their energy in raising our gorge   
against current law1 current morality1  
current respect ability1 and legal      
property4 ,the ordinary man1 uneducated 
in social theory even when he is        
schooled in ,latin verse1 cannot be set 
against all the laws of his country and 
yet persuaded to regard law in the      
abstract as vitally necessary to        

society4 ,once he is brought to         
repudiate the laws and institutions he  
knows1 he will repudiate the very       
conception of law and the very          
groundwork of institutions1 ridiculing  
human rights1 extolling brainless       
methods as historical1 and tolerating   
nothing except pure empiricism in       
conduct1 with dynamite as the basis of  
politics and vivisection as the basis of
 science4 ,that is hideous2 but what is 
to be done8 ,here am ,i1 for instance1  
by class a respectable man1 by common   
sense a hater of waste and disorder1 by 
intellectual constitution legally minded
 to the verge of pedantry1 and by       
temperament apprehensive and            
economically disposed to the limit of   
old-maidishness2 yet ,i am1 and have    
always been1 and shall now always be1 a 
revolutionary writer1 because our laws  
make law impossible2 our liberties      
destroy all freedom2 our property is    
organized robbery2 our morality is an   
impudent hypocrisy2 our wisdom is       

administered by inexperienced or        
malexperienced dupes1 our power wielded 
by cowards and weaklings1 and our honor 
false in all its points4 ,i am an enemy 
of the existing order for good reasons2 
but that does not make my attacks any   
less encouraging or helpful to people   
who are its enemies for bad reasons4    
,the existing order may shriek that if  
,i tell the truth about it1 some foolish
 person may drive it to become still    
worse by trying to assassinate it4 ,i   
cannot help that1 even if ,i could see  
what worse it could do than it is       
already doing4 ,and the disadvantage of 
that worst even from its own point of   
view is that society1 with all its      
prisons and bayonets and whips and      
ostracisms and starvations1 is powerless
 in the face of the ,anarchist who is   
prepared to sacrifice his own life in   
the battle with it4 ,our natural safety 
from the cheap and devastating          
explosives which every ,russian student 
can make1 and every ,russian grenadier  

has learnt to handle in ,manchuria1 lies
 in the fact that brave and resolute    
men1 when they are rascals1 will not    
risk their skins for the good of        
humanity1 and1 when they are sympathetic
 enough to care for humanity1 abhor     
murder1 and never commit it until their 
consciences are outraged beyond         
endurance4 ,the remedy is1 simply not to
 outrage their consciences4  ,do not be 
afraid that they will not make          
allowances4 ,all men make very large    
allowances indeed before they stake     
their own lives in a war to the death   
with society4 ,nobody demands or expects
 the millennium4 ,but there are two     
things that must be set right1 or we    
shall perish1 like ,rome1 of soul       
atrophy disguised as empire4 ,the first 
is1 that the daily ceremony of dividing 
the wealth of the country among its     
inhabitants shall be so conducted that  
no crumb shall go to any able-bodied    
adults who are not producing by their   
personal exertions not only a full      

equivalent for what they take1 but a    
surplus sufficient to provide for their 
superannuation and pay back the debt due
 for their nurture4  ,the second is that
 the deliberate infliction of malicious 
injuries which now goes on under the    
name of punishment be abandoned2 so that
 the thief1 the ruffian1 the gambler1   
and the beggar1 may without inhumanity  
be handed over to the law1 and made to  
understand that a ,state which is too   
humane to punish will also be too       
thrifty to waste the life of honest men 
in watching or restraining dishonest    
ones4 ,that is why we do not imprison   
dogs4 ,we even take our chance of their 
first bite4 ,but if a dog delights to   
bark and bite1 it goes to the lethal    
chamber4 ,that seems to me sensible4 ,to
 allow the dog to expiate his bite by a 
period of torment1 and then let him     
loose in a much more savage condition   
7for the chain makes a dog savage7 to   
bite again and expiate again1 having    
meanwhile spent a great deal of human   

life and happiness in the task of       
chaining and feeding and tormenting him1
 seems to me idiotic and superstitious4 
,yet that is what we do to men who bark 
and bite and steal4 ,it would be far    
more sensible to put up with their      
vices1 as we put up with their          
illnesses1 until they give more trouble 
than they are worth1 at which point we  
should1 with many apologies and         
expressions of sympathy1 and some       
generosity in complying with their last 
wishes1 then1 place them in the lethal  
chamber and get rid of them4 ,under no  
circumstances should they be allowed to 
expiate their misdeeds by a manufactured
 penalty1 to subscribe to a charity1 or 
to compensate the victims4 ,if there is 
to be no punishment there can be no     
forgiveness4 ,we shall never have real  
moral responsibility until everyone     
knows that his deeds are irrevocable1   
and that his life depends on his        
usefulness4 ,hitherto1 alas6 humanity   
has never dared face these hard facts4  

,we frantically scatter conscience money
 and invent systems of conscience       
banking1 with expiatory penalties1      
atonements1 redemptions1 salvations1    
hospital subscription lists and what    
not1 to enable us to contract-out of the
 moral code4 ,not content with the old  
scapegoat and sacrificial lamb1 we deify
 human saviors1 and pray to miraculous  
virgin intercessors4 ,we attribute mercy
 to the inexorable2 soothe our          
consciences after committing murder by  
throwing ourselves on the bosom of      
divine love2 and shrink even from our   
own gallows because we are forced to    
admit that it1 at least1 is             
irrevocable--as if one hour of          
imprisonment were not as irrevocable as 
any execution6  ,if a man cannot look   
evil in the face without illusion1 he   
will never know what it really is1 or   
combat it effectually4 ,the few men who 
have been able 7relatively7 to do this  
have been called cynics1 and have       
sometimes had an abnormal share of evil 

in themselves1 corresponding to the     
abnormal strength of their minds2 but   
they have never done mischief unless    
they intended to do it4 ,that is why    
great scoundrels have been beneficent   
rulers whilst amiable and privately     
harmless monarchs have ruined their     
countries by trusting to the hocus-pocus
 of innocence and guilt1 reward and     
punishment1 virtuous indignation and    
pardon1 instead of standing up to the   
facts without either malice or mercy4   
,major ,barbara stands up to ,bill      
,walker in that way1 with the result    
that the ruffian who cannot get hated1  
has to hate himself4 ,to relieve this   
agony be tries to get punished2 but the 
,salvationist whom he tries to provoke  
is as merciless as ,barbara1 and only   
prays for him4 ,then he tries to pay1   
but can get nobody to take his money4   
,his doom is the doom of ,cain1 who1    
failing to find either a savior1 a      
policeman1 or an almoner to help him to 
pretend that his brother's blood no     

longer cried from the ground1 had to    
live and die a murderer4 ,cain took care
 not to commit another murder1 unlike   
our railway shareholders 7,i am one7 who
 kill and maim shunters by hundreds to  
save the cost of automatic couplings1   
and make atonement by annual            
subscriptions to deserving charities4   
,had ,cain been allowed to pay off his  
score1 he might possibly have killed    
,adam and ,eve for the mere sake of a   
second luxurious reconciliation with    
,god afterwards4 ,bodger1 you may depend
 on it1 will go on to the end of his    
life poisoning people with bad whisky1  
because he can always depend on the     
,salvation ,army or the ,church of      
,england to negotiate a redemption for  
him in consideration of a trifling      
percentage of his profits4 ,there is a  
third condition too1 which must be      
fulfilled before the great teachers of  
the world will cease to scoff at its    
religions4 ,creeds must become          
intellectually honest4 ,at present there

 is not a single credible established   
religion in the world4 ,that is perhaps 
the most stupendous fact in the whole   
world-situation4 ,this play of mine1    
,major ,barbara1 is1 ,i hope1 both true 
and inspired2 but whoever says that it  
all happened1 and that faith in it and  
understanding of it consist in believing
 that it is a record of an actual       
occurrence1 is1 to speak according to   
,scripture1 a fool and a liar1 and is   
hereby solemnly denounced and cursed as 
such by me1 the author1 to all          
posterity4  ,london1 ,june #aijf4