Wordsworth held that every true poet was a teacher; and he said, “I wish either to be considered as a teacher, or as nothing.” The poems in this volume are designed to teach; and as instruction is best administered by methods which please while they elevate, the immediate object of these poems is to comfort, to bless, and to make happy; and, being framed on the principles of Truth, I doubt not that they will inspire men to embrace loftier ideals of life, draw them to a closer acquaintance with virtue, and lead them to a more intimate union with that perfect Wisdom whose ways are “ways of pleasantness,” and whose paths are “paths of peace.”

- James Allen

In this unusual departure from his usual practical and direct style, Allen here writes a series of thoughtful, reflective and inspirational poems laying out his unique thoughts in a new style.

Spiritual, secular, and deeply embedded in the genuine practice of faith, the book begins with Eolaus, an extended work following a man struggling through the depths of his spiritual sorrow, comforted and assailed by the vocies of earth and nature.

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James Allen wrote nineteen self-help books combining Buddhism, Confucianism, and classical Christianity between 1903 and 1912. Born to impoverished parents, one of whom was murdered when searching for work in America when Allen was fifteen, he went on to combine the esoteric and philosophical slant of eastern religions with the solid practicality and common-sense approach of a Victorian Englishman from Leicester.