Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/323

 "Boy." They are volumes which all parents should read and study. They have already given pause to many callous men and women who were neglecting to bestow that thought on the children's training which the subject demands. There are many Christian parents who for want of thought neglect this matter and sometimes have only themselves to thank for dissolute sons and impure daughters. On the other hand, to their credit it is the fact that many who are not Christians, who are careless and neglectful of religion, or are even agnostics, insist upon their children receiving that religious education which they themselves once received, with the just and broad-minded idea that, though they have become careless, cynical, or entirely agnostic, the children shall start as they did with the same training and have the same opportunity of forming their own judgment on these matters.

Parents will think deeply over "The Mighty Atom" and "Boy." Different as the two stories are, they deal essentially with this great question. They both teach serious lessons to the fathers and the mothers of English boyhood. The stories, as such, have been already dealt with. Here we will just give a few of those lessons which it is the object of the works in question to teach.