James Allen - Mind is the Master: The Complete James Allen Treasury

Table of Contents

The Law of Success
NAPOLEON HILL

Think and Grow Rich
NAPOLEON HILL

Your Magic Power to Be Rich!
NAPOLEON HILL

As a Man Thinketh
JAMES ALLEN

Acres of Diamonds
RUSSELL H. CONWELL

The Science of Getting Rich
WALLACE D. WATTLES

The Science of Being Great
WALLACE D. WATTLES

The Master Key System
CHARLES F. HAANEL

The Secret of the Ages
ROBERT COLLIER

Public Speaking for Success
DALE CARNEGIE

In Tune with the Infinite
RALPH WALDO TRINE

Prosperity
CHARLES FILLMORE

A Message to Garcia
ELBERT HUBBARD

How to Prosper in Hard Times
INCLUDES NAPOLEON HILL,
JAMES ALLEN, JOSEPH MURPHY

The Think and Grow Rich Workbook
NAPOLEON HILL

The Magic Ladder to Success
NAPOLEON HILL

The Master-Key to Riches
NAPOLEON HILL

The Game of Life and How to Play It
FLORENCE SCOVEL SHINN

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
JOSEPH MURPHY, PH.D., D.D.

Riches Within Your Reach!
ROBERT COLLIER

The nineteen books that compose Mind Is the Master and the remembrance of James Allen by his wife, Lily, appear largely as they did at the time of their original publication. Each has been reproduced from the earliest editions generally available. Other than minor adjustments made to bring the works in line with contemporary typography standards, the publisher has retained the original spellings, usage, and style of the author. As these works were written in the early twentieth century, they occasionally contain an antiquated reference or word choice. For purposes of historical accuracy, the publisher has left these intact.

I looked around upon the world, and saw that it was shadowed by sorrow and scorched by the fierce fires of suffering. And I looked for the cause. I looked around, but could not find it; I looked in books, but could not find it; I looked within, and found there both the cause and the self-made nature of that cause. I looked again, and deeper, and found the remedy. I found one Law, the Law of Love; one Life, the Life of adjustment to that Law; one Truth, the truth of a conquered mind and a quiet and obedient heart. And I dreamed of writing a book which should help men and women, whether rich or poor, learned or unlearned, worldly or unworldly, to find within themselves the source of all success, all happiness, all accomplishment, all truth. And the dream remained with me, and at last became substantial; and now I send it forth into the world on its mission of healing and blessedness, knowing that it cannot fail to reach the homes and hearts of those who are waiting and ready to receive it.

JAMES ALLEN

Unrest and pain and sorrow are the shadows of life. There is no heart in all the world that has not felt the sting of pain, no mind that has not been tossed upon the dark waters of trouble, no eye that has not wept the hot, blinding tears of unspeakable anguish. There is no household where the Great Destroyers, disease and death, have not entered, severing heart from heart, and casting over all the dark pall of sorrow. In the strong, and apparently indestructible meshes of evil all are more or less fast caught, and pain, unhappiness, and misfortune wait upon mankind.

With the object of escaping, or in some way mitigating this overshadowing gloom, men and women rush blindly into innumerable devices, pathways by which they fondly hope to enter into a happiness which will not pass away. Such are the drunkard and the harlot, who revel in sensual excitements; such is the exclusive aesthete, who shuts himself out from the sorrows of the world, and surrounds himself with enervating luxuries; such is he who thirsts for wealth or fame, and subordinates all things to the achievement of that object; and such are they who seek consolation in the performance of religious rites.

And to all the happiness sought seems to come, and the soul, for a time, is lulled into a sweet security, and an intoxicating forgetfulness of the existence of evil; but the day of disease comes at last, or some great sorrow, temptation, or misfortune breaks suddenly in on the unfortified soul, and the fabric of its fancied happiness is torn to shreds.

So over the head of every personal joy hangs the Damocletian sword of pain, ready, at any moment, to fall and crush the soul of him who is unprotected by knowledge.

The child cries to be a man or woman; the man and woman sigh for the lost felicity of childhood. The poor man chafes under the chains of poverty by which he is bound, and the rich man often lives in fear of poverty, or scours the world in search of an elusive shadow he calls happiness. Sometimes the soul feels that it has found a secure peace and happiness in adopting a certain religion, in embracing an intellectual philosophy, or in building up an intellectual or artistic ideal; but some overpowering temptation proves the religion to be inadequate or insufficient; the theoretical philosophy is found to be a useless prop; or in a moment, the idealistic statue upon which the devotee has for years been laboring is shattered into fragments at his feet.

Is there, then, no way of escape from pain and sorrow? Are there no means by which the bonds of evil may be broken? Is permanent happiness, secure prosperity, and abiding peace a foolish dream? No, there is a way, and I speak it with gladness, by which evil can be slain forever; there is a process by which disease, poverty, or any adverse condition or circumstance can be put on one side never to return; there is a method by which a permanent prosperity can be secured, free from all fear of the return of adversity, and there is a practice by which unbroken and unending peace and bliss can be partaken of and realized. And the beginning of the way which leads to this glorious realization is the acquirement of a right understanding of the nature of evil.

It is not sufficient to deny or ignore evil; it must be understood. It is not enough to pray to God to remove the evil; you must find out why it is there, and what lesson it has for you. It is of no avail to fret and fume and chafe at the chains which bind you; you must know why and how you are bound. Therefore, reader, you must get outside yourself, and must begin to examine and understand yourself. You must cease to be a disobedient child in the school of experience, and must begin to learn, with humility and patience, the lessons that are set for your edification and ultimate perfection; for evil, when rightly understood, is found to be, not an unlimited power or principle in the universe, but a passing phase of human experience, and it therefore becomes a teacher to those who are willing to learn. Evil is not an abstract something outside yourself; it is an experience in your own heart, and by patiently examining and rectifying your heart you will be gradually led into the discovery of the origin and nature of evil, which will necessarily be followed by its complete eradication.