either a savior, a policeman, or an almoner to help him to
pretend that his brother's blood no longer cried from the ground,
had to live and die a murderer. Cain took care not to commit
another murder, unlike our railway shareholders (I am one) who
kill and maim shunters by hundreds to save the cost of automatic
couplings, and make atonement by annual subscriptions to
deserving charities. Had Cain been allowed to pay off his score,
he might possibly have killed Adam and Eve for the mere sake of a
second luxurious reconciliation with God afterwards. Bodger, you
may depend on it, will go on to the end of his life poisoning
people with bad whisky, because he can always depend on the
Salvation Army or the Church of England to negotiate a redemption
for him in consideration of a trifling percentage of his profits.
There is a third condition too, which must be fulfilled before
the great teachers of the world will cease to scoff at its
religions. Creeds must become intellectually honest. At present
there is not a single credible established religion in the world.
That is perhaps the most stupendous fact in the whole
world-situation. This play of mine, Major Barbara, is, I hope,
both true and inspired; but whoever says that it all happened,
and that faith in it and understanding of it consist in believing
that it is a record of an actual occurrence, is, to speak
according to Scripture, a fool and a liar, and is hereby solemnly
denounced and cursed as such by me, the author, to all posterity.

London, June 1906.