Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-01-06

Here is her wonderful argument
"Radium absorbs energy from sur
rounding things and converts it into
heat and light. Nature is the pro-
duct of heat and light Life is com
nosed of heat and light Life which
is the radio-activity Of the soul, can
never die. The sou is an ethereal
composition capable of radio-activity,
Hence the resurrection ad the rein
carnation." Etc, etc The story in
which all this tumble of physics and
metaphysics is mixed up with an
equally impossible tumble of loves
and dislikes, is hardly worthy Of be-
ing accused Of having a plot
But people who like Marie Corellis
books will go wild over it, call the
book a higher revelation and Marie
its priestess. If it did not deal with
so important a subject as the inn
mortality of the soul, which the
Apostle Paul calls the cornerstone OF
Christianity, the book would not he
worth noticing on its merits as a
novel, or for any literary quality it
might possess. But pretending to be
an exposition of spiritual truth and
to teach Christian doctrine, it is dan
gerous because it is plausible to
shallow minds and will leave them
vet worse stranded on the mud-hats
of materialism. If God Is Spirit
Truth, Principle, Life and Love, as
she pretends, and man is created in
his image and likeess, then man as
the reflected image of the Divine and
created from a purely spiritua.
source, canot be the product Of ra'
dium, electricity, or any acticity ema'
mating from a material source, mol
from Nature. Such teaching is
bastard variety of pantheism. Al
far as a story goes, there is nothing
to it. A chronic invalid millionaire
with a cranky invalid daughter, 81
cruising on yacht. They invite tht
heroine along. They meet up will
another yacht of wonderful electric
sailing powers and radium illumina
ton. The hero is the radio-reflecto
in trousers, as the heroine is thI
radio-rehectress in skirts. The,
have no aches or ills or pains, hav
ing got an illumination into psychic
attitudes by radio-artivity reduced l.,
terms of comprehension. The chron
les die, the spark-refiectors MARI,
and we are to suppose live foreve
and a day. We were tempted t
read this latest work by Marie Corell
merely to discover what there was t
her writings that induced such er
roneous numbers to buy her books
Without plot, without literary dis
tinction, she possesses a faculty TO
mingling metaphysics, criticism c
life, philosophy, and the more subtl
poems of psychics - materialism-
into a tumble that must appear to .
the work of a genius to the misin
formed. AS nine-tenths of the read
ers of fiction cannot distinguish be
tween truth and error, are incapabl
of sitting the chaff from the wheat
and are not fundamentally grounde
in any life principle, they re delight
ed with a diversion that appears l
them supernatural.
That is Marie Corelli's art. Sc
called literary critics do not take he
seriously. But the popularity of he
work is in itself the severest criti
cism upon what might be terme
popular religious beliefs. Perhap
what she says in her prologue is tru
that nine-tenths o. all church mem
bers do not understand what they pre-
tend to believe, and therefore Mari
Corelli is able to afford them enter
tainment.