James Allen (editor) - The Wisdom of James Allen

THE WISDOM OF JAMES ALLEN

All titles in this series

The Wisdom of James Allen

The Wisdom of Joseph Murphy

The Wisdom of Napoleon Hill

The Wisdom of Robert Collier

The Wisdom of Wallace D. Wattles

THE WISDOM OF JAMES ALLEN

edited and introduced
by Mitch Horowitz

Published 2020 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

THE WISDOM OF JAMES ALLEN. Introduction, Chapter Notes, and Timeline, copyright 2020 by Mitch Horowitz

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Front Cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

ISBN: 978-1-7225-0148-8

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2247-6

10987654321

Contents

by Mitch Horowitz

I
The World a Reflex of Mental States

II
The Original Simplicity

III
The Might of Meekness

IV
As a Man Thinketh

V
Right Beginnings

VI
Small Tasks and Duties

VII
Out from the Heart

VIII
Buddha

IX
Thoroughness

X
Light on the Management of the Mind

XI
Good Results

Working-Class Sage

The Power and Progress of James Allen

INTRODUCTION BY MITCH HOROWITZ

I n a writing career that lasted just over a decade, English essayist, moralist, and mystic James Allen (18641921) revolutionized the field of modern inspirational literature. Before his death from tuberculosis at age 47, Allen produced the enormously popular meditation As a Man Thinketh and combined themes of social reform, Victorian self-reliance, and New Thought metaphysics like no author before or since.

Allens few years of output, ranging from the publication of his first book in 1901 to his death in early 1912, resulted in nearly twenty books, the launch of two magazines, and a countless range of letters, poems, and articles. The British seeker drank deeply from Eastern spirituality (he was among the first Westerners to popularize principles of Buddhism), American motivational and mind-power philosophy, and the rock-ribbed moralism of Victorian England, where he grew up in the shadow of factories and poverty.

His era was one in which Victorian readers were inspired by works like Invictus by William Ernest Henley (18491903), who was twenty years Allens elder:

Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

As you read the works in this collectionwhich I have structured to capture not only Allens mystical but also his moral concernsyou will detect his ability to combine the ideal of the British stiff upper lip with the insights of New Thought, Buddhism, Confucianism, and mystical Christianity. He may be the only writer for whom this is true. Allen was also a social reformer: he was a vegetarian (an influence from Buddhism), an early advocate for humane treatment of animals, and a supporter of laws protecting workers and promoting social equity.

All this arose from the brief career of a man who lost his father at age fifteen and had to quit school for factory work to ensure his familys survival. As important as anything that he wrote, Allen provided a living example of his philosophy of moral and material progress. That is why I have titled this introduction Working-Class Sage. That is what Allen is to meand his life story should be better known to the millions of readers who swear by his signature book As a Man Thinketh.

James Allen was born to a working-class home on November 28, 1864 in the industrial town of Leicester, in central England. His mother, Martha, could neither read nor write. His father, William, was a factory knitter who maintained a small manufacturing business. The eldest of three brothers, James was a bookish and gentle boy, doted upon by his father, who cultivated his taste in books and philosophy.

A downturn in the textile trade drove William out of business, and in 1879 he traveled to New York City to look for new work. His plan was to get settled and pay for the rest of the family to join him. But the unthinkable occurred. On the brink of the Christmas season, just after James had turned fifteen, word came back to the home that its patriarch was dead. William had been found robbed and murdered two days after reaching New York. His battered body, with its pockets emptied, lay in a city hospital.

Jamess mother, Martha, a woman who could not read or write, found herself in charge of James and his two younger brothers. The family had no means of support. Young Jim would have to leave school and work as a factory knitter if the Allens were to survive and remain intact.

The teenager had been his fathers favorite. An avid reader, James had spent hours questioning his father about life, death, religion, politics, and Shakespeare. My boy, William told him, Ill make a scholar of you. Those hopes seemed gone.

James took up employment locally as a framework knitter, a job that occupied his energies for the next nine years. He sometimes worked fifteen-hour days. But even amid the strains of factory life, he retained the dignified, studious bearing that his father had cultivated. When his workmates went out drinking, or caught up on sleep, Allen studied and read two to three hours a day. Coworkers called him the Saint and the Parson.

Allen read through his fathers collected works of Shakespeare, as well as books of ethics and religion. He grew determined to discover the central purpose of life. At age twenty-four he found the book that finally seemed to reveal it to him: The Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold. The epic poem introduced Allen, along with a generation of Victorians, to the ideas of Buddhism. Under its influence, Allen came to believe that the true aim of all religion was self-development and inner refinement.

Shortly after discovering The Light of Asia, Allen experienced a turning point in his outer life, as well. Around 1889 he found new employment in London as a private secretary and stationerfriendlier vocations to the bookish man than factory work. In London he met his wife and intellectual partner, Lily Louisa Oram. They wed in 1895. The following year, Lily gave birth to the couples daughter and only child, Nora.