got into his
lecture:

"My friends," said he, "a part of you have come here legitimately, to hear
a lecture; a part to satisfy the curiosity aroused by rumors to the effect
that I am likely to make indecorous and indecent remarks, which your
decorum and decency make you wish to hear, and of which you will carry away
evil and twisted reports, to gain the reputation of being fearless
defenders of the truth. It is a temptation to gratify your desire and shock
you--a far greater temptation than to be repentant and reactionary. Only,
it occurs to me that this place and time are supposed to be devoted to a
lecture by Henry Frazer on his opinions about contemporary drama. It is in
no sense to be given to the puling defense of a martyr, nor to the
sensational self-advertisement of either myself or any of you. I have no
intention of devoting any part of my lecture, aside from these introductory
adumbrations, to the astonishing number of new friends whose bright and
morning faces I see before me. I shall neither be so insincerely tactful as
to welcome you, nor so frightened as to ignore you. Nor shall I invite you
to come to me with any complaints you have about me. I am far too busy with
my real work!

"I am not speaking patiently. I am not patient with you! I am not
speaking politely. Truly, I do not think that I shall much longer be
polite!

"Wait. That sounds now in my ears as rhetorical! Forgive me, and
translate my indiscretions into more colloquial language.

"Though from rumors I have overheard, I fancy some of you will do
that, anyway.... And now, I think, you see where I stand.

"Now then. For such of you as have a genuine interest in the brilliant
work of Bernard Shaw I shall first continue the animadversions on the
importance of his social thought, endeavor to link it with the great
and growing vision of H. G. Wells (novelist and not dramatist though
he is, because of the significance of his new books, _Kips_ and
_Mankind in the Making_), and point out the serious purpose that seems
to me to underlie Shaw's sarcastic pictures of life's shams.

"In my last lecture I endeavored to present the destructive side of
present social theories as little as possible; to dwell more on the
keen desire of the modern thinkers for constructive imagination. But I
judge that I was regarded as too destructive, which amuses me, and to
which I shall apply the antidote of showing how destructive modern
thought is and must be--wheth