Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/240

 any of Marie Corelli's previous novels in equal proportion." A strange suggestion, that! "In His Steps," Zola's "Rome," and an equal proportion of, say, either "Vendetta" or "The Sorrows of Satan!" Reading the book itself seems to be so much more simple—and just.

Again, Mr. Stead referred to "The Master Christian" and to Mrs. Humphrey Ward's "Robert Elsmere," and speaking of their great success, he wrote: "The phenomenal sale of such works is perhaps much more worthy of consideration than anything that is to be found within the covers of the books themselves." Now the matter for consideration raised in "The Master Christian" is whether Christians, and more especially the Pope of Rome and the priests of the Romish Church, obey the commands and attempt to fulfil the behests of Jesus Christ. We should have thought Mr. Stead would have regarded that question, at any rate, as more important than the mere numerical sale of a book. Mr. Stead also said that as a book the chief fault of "The Master Christian" was its lack of sympathy. Yet the whole teaching of the work is a Divine charity. "If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." The chief figure in the book is Manuel,