"think you believe"? It will not be possible to do the deeds you write about as they are portrayed by free thinkers. Truth will be revealed to your innermost self. You cannot do otherwise than follow the Divine Revelation, which alone leads to real happiness, for all material pleasures are swept away sooner or later. _A boy reader, Chicago_: In the preface of his latest _Quintessence of Ibsenism_, Shaw expresses his astonishment that the book changed peoples' minds. He has perhaps by now collected abundant evidence that his books really have changed peoples' minds and whole life courses. What would, perhaps, be more astonishing to him is the fact that the first hearing of one of his plays did it--and without the aid of a preface. _Fanny's First Play_ started me thinking about family relationship. Long before the play was published, with the lengthy preface on parents and children, the very things he advises were happening. The preface was undoubtedly written after long contemplation of the play--as was my action; proving that the generalizations he makes are not as impossible or absurd as the family egotist so pathetically argues. I do not doubt that this play, the beginning of my knowledge of Shaw, was the most important event of my youth. It is, of course, most important as a woman's play, but why Margaret Knox's revolt could not be mine I do not see. The family in which I was being "brought up" was all that Shaw says the present day family is--and worse, for there were also brothers and a sister to aid in the "bringing up." These were all brought up in dutiful submission to mother's influence and father's care. They had "arrived" or gone just as far as they ever thought of going just as I was starting for my goal. Their present condition had received parental commendation; but what I saw, on looking about me, made me shudder--and think. I would find out the reason for their condition and see if their fate was to be mine. Of one thing I was certain:--if "family duty" or "filial piety" were responsible for the state of things I would have none of it--and I said so. "You'll see--you'll bump your head some day; you'll see what good it does to have foolish visions or dreams; you just do what you're told and you'll be better off. Mother and father know more than you--they're older." All this I had patronizingly handed out to me. Somehow all this was horrible to me--this idea of contemplating a future such as theirs--a colorless life built on "doing what you're told" and not "having foolish dreams." For it struck me as an existence that mocked the very system that was responsible for it. The only thing by which I could judge the worth of the advice was the finished result.