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GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

this unexpected and vexatious conduct on the part of this
absurdly inexperienced young woman, her erstwhile paragon
and prot$g£c_t summarily disinherited her. In many ways, Miss
(rvtrly'.s marriage proved a disappointment. Her husband, one
of the most impecunious of men, was far too poor to enable
her to live on the scale to which she had been accustomed.
Indeed, he was anything but a satisfactory husband for a clever
woman. It was in her music that Mrs, Shaw found solace and
comfort—a refuge from domestic disappointment.

The formative influences of Shaw's early life, were of a nature
to inculcate in him that disbelief in popular education, that
disrespect for popular religion, and that contempt for social
pretensions which are so deeply ingrained in his work and
character, Is it any wonder, after his youthful experience with
orthodox religion, that, like Tennyson, he cherished a contempt
for the God of the British: " an immeasurable clergyman " ?
In his own. perverse and brilliant way, he has told us the history
of his progressive revolt against the religious standards of his
family;

** I believe Ireland, as far as the Protestant gentry are
concerned, to be the most irreligious country in the world,
I was christened by my uncle; and as my godfather was
intoxicated and did not turn up, the sexton was ordered
to promise and vow in his place, precisely as my uncle
might have ordered him to put more coals on the vestry
fibre. I was never confirmed, and I believe my parents neve:r
were either. The seriousness with which English families
take this rite, and the deep impression it makes on many
children, was a thing of which I had no conception. Prcxt-
•atantism in Ireland is not a religion; it is a side in political
faction, a class prejudice, a conviction that Roman Catholics
are socially inferior persons, who will go to hell when they
die, and leave Heaven in the exclusive possession of ladies
and .gentlemen. In my childhood I was sent every Sunday
to a Sunday school where genteel children repeated texts,
and were rewarded with little cards inscribed with otlie:r
texts, Alter an hour of this, we were marched into



	GEORGE BERNARD SHAW this unexpected and vexatious conduct on the part of this absurdly inexperienced young woman, her erstwhile paragon and prot$g£c_t summarily disinherited her. In many ways, Miss (rvtrly'.s marriage proved a disappointment. Her husband, one of the most impecunious of men, was far too poor to enable her to live on the scale to which she had been accustomed. Indeed, he was anything but a satisfactory husband for a clever woman. It was in her music that Mrs, Shaw found solace and comfort—a refuge from domestic disappointment. The formative influences of Shaw's early life, were of a nature to inculcate in him that disbelief in popular education, that disrespect for popular religion, and that contempt for social pretensions which are so deeply ingrained in his work and character, Is it any wonder, after his youthful experience with orthodox religion, that, like Tennyson, he cherished a contempt for the God of the British: " an immeasurable clergyman " ? In his own. perverse and brilliant way, he has told us the history of his progressive revolt against the religious standards of his family; I believe Ireland, as far as the Protestant gentry are concerned, to be the most irreligious country in the world, I was christened by my uncle; and as my godfather was intoxicated and did not turn up, the sexton was ordered to promise and vow in his place, precisely as my uncle might have ordered him to put more coals on the vestry fibre. I was never confirmed, and I believe my parents neve:r were either. The seriousness with which English families take this rite, and the deep impression it makes on many children, was a thing of which I had no conception. Prcxt-** •atantism in Ireland is not a religion; it is a side in political faction, a class prejudice, a conviction that Roman Catholics are socially inferior persons, who will go to hell when they die, and leave Heaven in the exclusive possession of ladies and .gentlemen. In my childhood I was sent every Sunday to a Sunday school where genteel children repeated texts, and were rewarded with little cards inscribed with otlie:r texts, Alter an hour of this, we were marched into 8