A little later “there came a heavy stillness, ... and a sudden sense of cold in the air, as of the swift passing of the Shadow of Death.”
One may reasonably contend that such passages as these are unnecessarily distressing, and certainly there are several of Miss Corelli’s works which should not be left in the way of weak-minded persons. The authoress, it is clear, wishes to drive home her arguments in a manner that will be remembered. Chapter XIV. of “The Mighty Atom” is not one that is ever likely to be forgotten by those who have read this book.
People who object to such methods as Miss Corelli employs in “The Mighty Atom” must bear in mind that the motive underlying each of her stories is to show up a certain evil and suggest remedial measures, themselves as powerful as the disease requiring their application.
The lesson taught so startlingly in “The Mighty Atom” must have brought home the truths of its straightforward doctrines to a multitude of readers. Thus can a book drop seed which is destined to flourish abundantly for a great length of time and in widely separated places. If a book be good, it will have a long life: living, its effects will be felt by more than one generation of readers. Such is the power of literature--such the strength of a mere pen when wielded by one whose principal stock-in-trade is knowledge combined with sincerity and a determination to speak out for the general weal at all hazards, critics notwithstanding.
“Boy,” a book about equal in length to “The Mighty Atom,” is less picturesque in its setting than the latter, but, on the other hand, is lightened by considerable humor and happy characterization. It is a sermon to parents. The boy, as we know, is father of the man; consequently, if you bring a boy up badly, the complete growth of him when he reaches man’s estate is hardly likely to be satisfactory.
“It is a dangerous fallacy,” says the author of “Boy,” “to aver that every man has the making of his destiny in his own hands: to a certain extent he has, no doubt, and with education and firm resolve, he can do much to keep down the Beast and develop the Angel; but a terrific responsibility rests upon those often voluntarily reckless beings, his parents, who, without taking thought, use God’s privilege of giving life, while utterly failing to perceive the means offered to them for developing and preserving that life under the wisest and most harmonious conditions.”