Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/312



hopeful 'sign of the times' is the advancing and resistless tide of Truth, which is approaching steadily—which cannot be kept back, and which in the first breaking of its great wave shall engulf a whole shore of weedy shams. A desire for Truth is in the hearts of the people: Truth in religion, Truth in Life, Truth in work. We are all aiming for it, pushing towards it, and breaking down obstacles on the way. And, because God is on the side of Truth, we shall obtain it; more speedily, perhaps, than we think—especially if we are not too weakly ready to be led away by the first Anti-Christ of religious, political, or social example.

"'Truth, like the sun in the morning skies,   Shall clear the clouds from the days to be; "Each for himself" is a Gospel of Lies,    That never was issued by God's decree.'"

Such are a few examples of Miss Corelli's utterances in public. It is hardly necessary to add that these speeches were liberally punctuated with applause by those who had the privilege of listening to them.

If those who condemn the novelist so readily will only take the trouble to study what she has said, they cannot, if they wish to be regarded as honest men, deny her possession of many of the qualities that make for greatness. There are people who fear and dislike this lady because the attitude she takes up, on many questions, is significant of Battle. She hits very hard; her