The Way of All Flesh

Introduction vii Shaws perversities and ironies came from. The foundation i)f Etitlers style is tlic paradox; moral dynamics arc reversed; the unpardonable sin is conventionality. His masterpiece answers no questions; solves no problems; chases away no perplexities. Every reader becomes an interrogation point. Butler rubs our thoughts the wrong way. As axiom after axiom is ruthlessly attacked, we pick over our minds for some missile to throw at him. It is a good thing for every man and woman whose brain happens to be in activity to read this amazingly c.texer, originaj Lbrnian LfU abplica Inovel. And for those wbose brains are in captivity it may smash some fetters. Every one who understands what he reads will take an inventory of his own rehgious and moral stock. Butler delighted in the role of A dvocatus DiaboH. In his NoU-B oaks he has the follo Vnigapdlogy for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have heard niy one side of the case. God has written all the books. A ell. He certainly did not wite this one; He permitted he Devil to have his hour. VT he worst misfortune that can happen to any person, says Butler, is to lose his money; the second is to lose his health; and the loss of reputation is a bad third, Mle seems to have regarded the death of his father as ffie most fortunate event in his own life; for it made him financially independent. He never quite forgave the old man for hanging on till he .-as eighty years old. He ridiculed tlie Bishop of CarI Ic for saying that we long lo meet our parents in the tworld. Speaking for myself, I have no wish to see :y fatljer again, and I think it likely that the Bishop of nrlisle would not be more eager to see his tlian I mine. I clchisedec was a really happy man. He was without iher, without mother, and without descent. He was II incarnate bachelor. He was a horn orphan. CJ nc rraaon why The i Pay uf All P
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)