[2] Shaw in his "A Foreword to the Popular Edition of Man and Superman" says:
I have a special reason for making this book more widely accessible than it can be, even in these days of free libraries, at the customary price of my books. It is described on the title page as "A Comedy and a Philosophy". It might have been called a religion as well; for the vision of hell in the third act, which has never been performed on the stage except as a separate work, is expressly intended to be a revelation of the modern religion of evolution. (Shaw, III, p. 747.)
Later on he says, "I think it well to affirm plainly that the third act, however fanciful its legendary framework may appear, is a careful attempt to write a new Book of Genesis for the Bible of the Evolutionists...." (Shaw, III, p. 748.)
[3] Shaw, III, p.9
[4] Cf. p. 4, above.
[5] The play's title page indicates that it was written between 1918 and 1920 and first performed in New York in 1922. The opening of the second play places it in "the first years after the war...." (Shaw, II, pp. v, 37.)
[6] ITC Galliard is used for the main text of this paper and ITC Bold Century Old Style is used for the fragmented text.
[7] The first reference to the older long- lived characters in the fifth play is when a youth speaks to an older male and says "Now, then, ancient sleepwalker...." The reference is immediately continued in the play's stage directions where he is referred to as "The Ancient". Shaw, III, 206.
For the sake of convenience in referring to this race the entire set of long- lived beings in this play will be simply referred to as ancients (lower case), whether they are children or mature specimens, to distinguish them from their short- lived predecessors and the mature adults will be referred to as Ancients (initial capital).
[8] Shaw, II, p. 207.
[9] Shaw, II, p. 211.
[10] However, see Far- Fetched Fables for a possible suggestion regarding dietetics of the next evolutionary step. (Shaw, VI, 504-6)
[11] Shaw, II, p. 211 et passim.
[12] Shaw, II, p. 214.
[13] Shaw, II, p. 210, 233, et passim.
[14] Shaw II, p 255.
[15] Cf. p. 4, above.
[16] Cf. p. 12, above.
[17] Shaw, II, 252.
[18] John 14:2.