Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/322

 *tary educational Parliament of London, the Metropolitan School Board.

Whatever be the general scheme of elementary, secondary, higher, and technical education and training, Marie Corelli would have the people insist, as for life itself, upon the children being taught "the knowledge and love of God."

She would have that knowledge imparted in the spirit of which Queen Victoria wrote: "I am quite clear," said the Queen, speaking of her eldest daughter, then a child, "that she should be taught to have great reverence for God and for religion, and that she should have the feeling of devotion and love which our Heavenly Father encourages His earthly children to have for Him, and not one of fear and trembling." In "The Master Christian" we see incidentally brought out the evil results of the unhappy law of France which excludes religious education from the schools, the consequence of which is the enormous increase of agnostic thought in that country, and, built upon it, the views and practices which are eating into the heart of that great nation like a foul disease, weakening its numerical strength and its moral and intellectual force. For the guidance of parents in this matter we would commend them to those two most interesting books, "The Mighty Atom" and