Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/324

 The author would have children's bodies educated as well as their minds. She regards the former as the more important for the reason that a healthy body is the most suitable habitation for a healthy mind, and that a keen intellect developed by ruining the physical strength is not calculated to benefit either the individual, or the community to which the individual belongs. Lionel Valliscourt, the little hero of "The Mighty Atom," has a father and also a tutor, one Montrose. The father is an atheist and anxious to educate the son on a system, part of which is the exclusion of religion from the curriculum. Montrose, a level-headed, clear-brained Scotchman,—no "preacher," but possessing a simple belief in God—is dismissed from his position because he does not approve the father's system. This he describes as child-murder; and in the remarks he addresses to the father at their last interview Marie Corelli's opinions about child-training are indicated:

"I will have no part in child-murder" (says Montrose), "Child-murder! Take the phrase and think it over! You have only one child,—a boy of a most lovable and intelligent disposition,—quick-brained, too quick-brained by half!—You are killing him with your hard and fast rules, and your pernicious 'system' of intellectual training. You deprive him of such pastimes as are necessary to his health and growth,—you surround him