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Show If C' I The interest of the religious novel lies j mainly in the fact that it reflects more or jl Mission le8.8 fai,"ful'y 11,0 idt,aB wlu'c nr in t,ic f at 'the moment, that it collects into ono fo-1 fo-1 OI tlie c"8 os it were, thoughts which are vaguely A oli"r.ii illuminating men's minds with new light. IMJllglOlIS A period of intellectual unrest, of philo- IVoVCl sopliic disturbance is, in fact, essential to K the birth and production of such novels as ; "Hobert Elsmer" and "II Santo." By ETHEL M. ARNOLD, Ages of faith arc ever followed by ages n.it4itUihAuihor,NoriaAm.rica. 0f rcaBOn, a period of assent by a period of aiHaaaBaBBaBHBBiaHBHHHHBIBaaBwM doubt, and as the domain of the novel has J come to bo recognized as co-oxtensivo with j, life itself it is inevitable that those inner conflicts which form the stuff out of which so much poignant human drama is made should appeal to j tho more serious type of novelist. ! ' In other words, the religious novel has proved its right to exist. It is j no longer intelligent to sneer at the, authors who write such hooks nor at the people who read them. ! An; intelligent critic, asked to define a "religious novel," properly so f called ptobnijly would reply that it should deal not with the conflict bo- I " tween any! religion or nono, but rather with tho strugglp arising in tho con- i" science p'f any given individual between the form of religion he has hithor- ' lo professed and (hntjvhich some new spiritual awakening, some inner com; pelfing. force, has urged him to udopt. It' is conflict such as thia out of !' which drama is bornj it. i?. drama such as this winch reflects tho spiritual Jife of a generation. |