I propose, then, to show, in as few words as possible, that Mr. Shaw has not only proved himself incapable of shaking a single one of the various arguments advanced by me, but that whilst flattering himself that, in his own phrase, he has been taking his opponent’s scalp, the scalp which he holds, and has really taken, is his own. His criticism divides itself into two main parts. One is an admission of the truth of one of the fundamental propositions on which I insisted. The second is a complete evasion of another, and the substitution for it of an ineptitude which is entirely of Mr. Shaw’s invention, and which he finds it so easy and so exciting to demolish, that he sets it up as often as he knocks it down, for the pleasure of displaying his prowess over again. Here, then, are three propositions to be dealt with: First, the primary proposition on which I insisted, and the truth of which Mr. Shaw admits; secondly, a proposition on which Mr. Shaw declares that I insisted, but which is really an invention of his own; and thirdly, a proposition on which I did insist actually, but which Mr. Shaw never even states, much less attempts to meet. This third proposition I shall briefly state once again when I have dealt with the two others, and show how Fabian philosophy—indeed the philosophy of all Socialism—completely fails to meet it. To begin, then, with the first. My primary object has been to exhibit the absolute falsehood of the Socialistic doctrine that _all wealth is due to labour_, and to replace this by a demonstration that under modern conditions of production, labour is not only not the sole producer of wealth, but does not even produce the principal part of it. The principal producing agent, I have pointed out, is what I have called Industrial Ability—or the faculty which, whilst exercised by a few, directs the labour of the many; and if this truth is once accepted, it completely cuts away from Socialism the whole of its existing foundations, and renders absolutely meaningless the whole of its popular rhetoric. For the most powerful argumentative appeal which Socialism can make to the majority is merely some amplification of the statement, which is no doubt plausible, and is advanced by Socialists as an axiom, that the exertions of the majority—or, in other words, Labour—has produced all wealth, and that therefore the majority not only ought to possess it, but will be able to possess it by the simple process of retaining it. But the moment the productive functions of industrial ability are made clear, the doctrine which seemed an axiom is reduced to an absurdity; and what might before have seemed a paradox becomes a simple and intelligible truth—the doctrine, namely, that a comparatively few persons, with certain exceptional gifts, are capable of producing more wealth than all the rest of the community; and that whoever may produce the wealth which the rich classes possess, it is