[218] The Author's Apology, Preface to the Stage Society's edition of Mrs. Warren's Profession, p. xxii.
[219] The Meaning of Mr. Bernard Shaw, by G. K. Chesterton, in the Daily News, October 30th, 1901.
[220] Prospectus of the Schiller-Theater, Berlin. Vornehmlich über mich selbst, von Bernard Shaw. This “Plauderei” appeared in the Vienna Zeit in February, 1903, shortly before the production of Teufelskerl (The Devil's Disciple) in Vienna.
[221] The celebrated account Shaw once gave of his visit to an ophthalmic surgeon clearly sets before us his conception of the nature and value of his critical faculty: “He tested my eyesight one evening, and informed me that it was quite uninteresting to him because it was 'normal.' I naturally took this to mean that it was like everybody else's; but he rejected this construction as paradoxical, and hastened to explain to me that I was an exceptional and highly fortunate person optically, 'normal' sight conferring the power of seeing things accurately, and being enjoyed by only about ten per cent. of the population, the remaining ninety per cent. being abnormal. I immediately perceived the explanation of my want of success in fiction. My mind's eye, like my body's, was 'normal'; it saw things differently from other people's eyes, and saw them better.”—Mainly About Myself, Preface to Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant, Vol. I., p. 11.
[222] At various times, in essays published in Europe and in America, I have called attention to the resemblance between Shaw and Molière, dubbing Shaw the Molière of our time. Recently, M. Auguste Hamon has made a detailed comparison of the two comic dramatists in the Nineteenth Century and After: Un Nouveau Molière, July, 1908.
[223] Our Saturday Talk.—VI., Mr. Bernard Shaw, in the Saturday Westminster Gazette, November 26th, 1904.
[224] Man and Superman: Epistle Dedicatory to Arthur Bingham Walkley, p. xxvi.
[225] M. Bernard Shaw et son Théâtre, by Augustin Filon; Revue des Deux Mondes, November 15th, 1905.
[226] Response to the toast: The Authors of the Court Theatre, by G. Bernard Shaw, at the Vedrenne-Barker Dinner, Criterion Restaurant, London, July 7th, 1907.
ARTIST AND PHILOSOPHER