Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/195

 man may never redeem the devil, but that when man has become as perfect as, through Christ, he may, then the devil may again become an angel—a Doctrine of universal salvation for sinners and for Satan too. No other writer has given such a conception of the devil's character and position.

The central conception of "The Sorrows of Satan," Marie Corelli further says, is that as the possession of an immortal spirit must needs breed immortal longings, Satan, being an angel once, must of necessity long for that state of perfection; and that God, being the perfection of love, could not in His love deny all hope of final redemption even to Satan. Truly she here gives a conception of the God of Love more attractive than the pitiless readings of the Divine character which some theologians would have us accept.

There are the two conflicting influences in the novelist's conception of the devil—Satan endeavoring to corrupt and destroy man, yet knowing that if man rejects him he is nearer to his own redemption. And so in this book we find Prince Lucio Rimânez often giving utterance to thoughts and principles which the man enslaved by him refuses to adopt and practice, as if he longed for Tempest to repel him, though helping forward all his selfish schemes. And we are given, too, the picture of