t), he is
just as likely to be as right as is Mr. Shaw when he contends that
marriage must be made to fit the times, even if it be granted it is a
Divine thing.

If Shaw is unable to see that most earthly things have a heavenly
meaning, as Chesterton does, it is so much the worse for Shaw and so
much the better for Chesterton. If Chesterton is a dangerous Romantic
who likes Fairyland, at least Shaw is a dangerous eugenist who wants a
super-man, and I am not sure that the fairies of Chesterton are not more
useful than the ethics of Shaw; there is no doubt that they are less
grown up. If Shaw is a philosopher, he is not one of this Universe; he
is of another that shall be entirely sub-Shavian. If Chesterton is a
philosopher, it is because he can see this universe better upside down
than Shaw understands it the right way up.

In fact, the difference between Shaw and Chesterton may, I think, be
something like this. They are, as I have said, both reformers, but
Chesterton wishes to keep man as he is essentially, and gradually make
him something better. Shaw wants to have done with man and produce a
super-man. In this way Shaw admits the failure of man to rise above his
environment. Chesterton not only thinks he is able to, but tries to
prove it in his writings. Thus, if a man is an atheist he can show that
he is in time capable of becoming a good theist, but Shaw if he allows
some of his characters to be in hell, gets them out of it by attempting
to make them strive for the super-man. For Chesterton, Man is the
Super-Man; for Shaw, the Super-Man is not Man at all.

In fact, this no doubt is the reason that Shaw is really a pessimist and
Chesterton an optimist.

There is, I think, little doubt that Chesterton is a far more important
man than Shaw. He has the facility for getting hold of the things that
matter; he is never ill-natured; he does not make fun of other people.
Much as the writer admires the wit and brilliancy of Shaw, he cannot
help feeling that Shaw is a rather cynical personality; Shaw loves to
laugh at people, he is inclined to make fun of the martyrs. They were
possibly quite mistaken in their enthusiasm, but at least they were
consistent. I do not feel convinced that Shaw would stand in the middle
of Piccadilly Circus and keep his ideals if he knew that it would
involve being eaten by lions that came up Regent Street, as the martyrs
faced them centuries ago in Rome, but I have little doubt that
Chesterto