Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/211

 Atom" is not one that is ever likely to be forgotten by those who have read this book.

People who object to such methods as Miss Corelli employs in "The Mighty Atom" must bear in mind that the motive underlying each of her stories is to show up a certain evil and suggest remedial measures, themselves as powerful as the disease requiring their application.

The lesson taught so startlingly in "The Mighty Atom" must have brought home the truths of its straightforward doctrines to a multitude of readers. Thus can a book drop seed which is destined to flourish abundantly for a great length of time and in widely separated places. If a book be good, it will have a long life: living, its effects will be felt by more than one generation of readers. Such is the power of literature—such the strength of a mere pen when wielded by one whose principal stock-in-trade is knowledge combined with sincerity and a determination to speak out for the general weal at all hazards, critics notwithstanding.

"Boy," a book about equal in length to "The Mighty Atom," is less picturesque in its setting than the latter, but, on the other hand, is lightened by considerable humor and happy characterization. It is a sermon to parents. The boy, as we know,