Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/284



scene in which the young prince firmly refuses to abandon Gloria, or to commit bigamy by another marriage. It is one of those scenes in which Miss Corelli is seen at her best. There is deep scorn in the prince's utterance when he declines the other marriage: "Three or four Royal sinners of this class I know of who for all their pains have not succeeded in winning the attachment of their people, either for themselves or their heirs." He further emphatically assures his royal father that he will, if needful, "make it a test case, and appeal to the law of the realm. If that law tolerates a crime in princes which it would punish in commoners, then I shall ask the People to judge me!" The whole book throughout is so arranged that Miss Corelli is everywhere enabled to give utterance to the views of life she holds, and to attack the things she considers wrong. This she does in every instance with eloquent vehemence, and there will be many who must feel that she usually has right on her side. "Of things temporal there shall be no duration—neither Sovereignty nor Supremacy, nor Power; only Love, which makes weak the strongest, and governs the proudest." The end of the book is the abdication and death of the king, his son and Gloria sailing to happier climes, rejoicing in a pure love. In its scope and imagination this is one of the most striking volumes Miss Corelli has given us.

From this exceedingly able summing-up of the work we will now turn to the article on "Temporal Power" which was published in The Review of Reviews.

To begin with, it needs to be explained that Mr. Stead first of all wrote a private letter to Miss Co