# Shaw's evolutionary will and Chesterton's miraculous shortcut

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH08.P008](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH08.P008/#char=838,940): "miracles are only the final flowers of his own favourite tree, the doctrine of the omnipotence of will"

The charge has a substantial contemporary comparison in Shaw's *Man and Superman* (first published 1903; the edition inspected is Project Gutenberg #3328, updated 2015). In the Act III dream debate, Don Juan describes evolution as the Life Force's experiments toward an ideally omnipotent, self-conscious individual. He also predicts that earnest human willing will find technical means of separating sexual pleasure from reproduction. This is a recognizable basis for Chesterton's picture of Shaw treating will as a power capable of transforming apparently fixed circumstances. [Shaw, Act III](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3328/3328-h/3328-h.htm#link2H_4_0004).

But the same dialogue supplies a qualification. Don Juan's Life Force advances through blunders, needs intelligence, and must discover means: it does not already possess unlimited power. He distinguishes serving its developing purpose from pursuing shortsighted personal aims. These dramatic speeches therefore support an evolutionary aspiration more directly than a doctrine that any individual's wishes can immediately command nature. Chesterton's flowers image interprets supernatural intervention as the completion of that aspiration; it does not demonstrate that Shaw's argument entails miracles. Gradually finding a natural means and acting without one remain distinguishable claims.

There is a similar question concealed in the immortality challenge. Does making life greater mean increasing the scope of this person's existence, or advancing a purpose that can outlast and replace that person? Only the former makes perpetual personal survival an obvious continuation of the same ambition. The paragraph presses its charge by moving quickly across this distinction. The exact Shaw statements behind the reported contempt for miracles and the contrasting judgments on selfishness were not located in this investigation; they should be read as Chesterton's unverified characterizations rather than authenticated quotations.

## Sources

- [Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3328/3328-h/3328-h.htm), Act III, Don Juan's dream: speeches beginning 'My point, you marbleheaded old masterpiece', 'Without a brain, Commander', and 'How if a time comes'; Gutenberg #3328, updated July 30, 2015; dedicatory epistle signed Woking, 1903

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