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This version of “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles was prepared by the

Dhanyata Group in cooperation with members of the Salt Lake Science of Getting Rich Club.

The majority of the text was left as Mr. Wattles wrote it. However, the following list explains a

few minor changes:

In chapter 3, the reference to the railway and airline industries was removed.

In Chapter 8, the sentence, “Do not spend your time in charitable work or charity movements”

was removed, as well as a few supporting sentences. It is our understanding that in the early part

of the 20th century, most charities were of the nature of providing only temporary relief and not

of providing long-lasting guidance and inspiration. In our current age, there are many charitable

organizations that use the majority (at least 98%) of the funds donated to provide this long-

lasting guidance and inspiration and we highly recommend that they be supported. However,

due-diligence must be exercised in order to find those charities that qualify.

In chapter 10, the sentence, “You do not need to read any other book upon the subject” was

removed. The reason is that we feel there are many other books that have been written since

1910 that concur with what Mr. Wattles wrote and should be studied in order to reinforce the

understanding and implementation of the principles taught herein.

In chapter 12, the word “efficient” was replaced with the word “effective”. This is due to the fact

that the meanings of these two words were, at one time, practically identical. However, current

usage of the word “effective” is more in keeping with our interpretation of what Mr. Wattles

intended.

It is our sincere desire that you get out of this book what we have. Being introduced to, studying

and incorporating the ideas, concepts and principles in this book have been life-changing and we

thank Bob Proctor for making that introduction.

Preface............................................................................................................................................4

Chapter 1 - The Right To Be Rich...............................................................................................5

Chapter 2 - There is a Science of Getting Rich..........................................................................7

Chapter 3 - Is Opportunity Monopolized?...............................................................................10

Chapter 4 - The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich.............................................12

Chapter 5 - Increasing Life........................................................................................................16

Chapter 6 - How Riches Come to You......................................................................................20

Chapter 7 - Gratitude.................................................................................................................23

Chapter 8 - Thinking in the Certain Way................................................................................26

Chapter 9 - How to Use the Will................................................................................................29

Chapter 10 - Further Use of the Will........................................................................................32

Chapter 11 - Acting in the Certain Way...................................................................................36

Chapter 12 - Effective Action....................................................................................................40

Chapter 13 - Getting into the Right Business...........................................................................43

Chapter 14 - The Impression of Increase.................................................................................46

Chapter 15 - The Advancing Person.........................................................................................49

Chapter 16 - Some Cautions and Concluding Observations..................................................52

Chapter 17 - Summary of the Science of Getting Rich...........................................................55

Preface

THIS book is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual, not a treatise upon theories. It is

intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money; who wish to get rich

first, and philosophize afterward. It is for those who have, so far, not found the time, the means,

or the opportunity to go deeply into the study of metaphysics, but who want results and who are

willing to take the conclusions of science as a basis for action, without going into all the

processes by which those conclusions were reached.

It is expected that the reader will take the fundamental statements upon faith, just as a person

would take statements concerning a law of electrical action if they were promulgated by a

Marconi or an Edison; and, taking the statements upon faith, would prove their truth by acting

upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will certainly get rich;

for the science herein applied is an exact science, and failure is impossible. For the benefit,

however, of those who wish to investigate philosophical theories and so secure a logical basis for

faith, I will here cite certain authorities.

The monistic theory of the universe the theory that One is All, and that All is One; That one

Substance manifests itself as the seeming many elements of the material world is of Hindu

origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western world for two

hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies.

In writing this book I have sacrificed all other considerations to plainness and simplicity of style,

so that all might understand. The plan of action laid down herein was deduced from the

conclusions of philosophy; it has been thoroughly tested, and bears the supreme test of practical

experiment; it works. If you wish to reap the fruits of this philosophy in actual practice, read this

book and do exactly as it tells you to do----

The Author

Chapter 1 - The Right To Be Rich

WHATEVER may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a

really complete or successful life unless one is rich. People cannot rise to their greatest possible

height in talent or soul development unless they have plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and

to develop talent, individuals must have many things to use, and people cannot have these things

unless they have money to buy them with.

A person develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized

that a person must have money in order to become the possessor of things; therefore, the basis of

a person’s advancement must be the science of getting rich.

The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the

development it is capable of attaining.

A person's right to life means the right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things

which may be necessary to one’s fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other

words, the right to be rich.

In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not mean to be

satisfied or contented with a little. No one ought to be satisfied with a little if that person is

capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment

of life; and every man and woman should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance,

beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.

A person who owns all that is wanted for the living of all the life that person is capable of living

is rich; and the person who does not have plenty of money cannot have all that is wanted. Life

has advanced so far, and become so complex, that even the most ordinary man or woman

requires a great amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches

completeness. Everyone naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming; this

desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all

that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be; you can become what you want

to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become

rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is therefore the most essential

of all knowledge.

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a

richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy. The person who does not

desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the person who does not desire to have money

enough to buy all that is wanted is abnormal.

There are three motives for which we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for

the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of

the three--body, mind, or soul--can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and

expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body; and it is

wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or soul.

We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both

mind and soul; and we see that real life means the complete expression of all that a person can

give forth through body, mind, and soul. Whatever else a person may say no one can be really

happy or satisfied unless one’s body is living fully in every function, and unless the same is true

of the mind and the soul. Wherever there is unexpressed possibility, or function not performed,

there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression, or function seeking

performance.

A person cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter;

and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to one’s physical

life.

A person cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity

for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship.

To live fully in mind one must have intellectual recreations, and must surround oneself with all

the objects of art and beauty that person is capable of using and appreciating.

To live fully in soul, a person must have love; and love is denied expression by poverty.

A person's highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on loved ones; love finds it’s

most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The person who has nothing to give cannot

fill the place of a husband, wife, mother or father, as a citizen, or a human being. It is in the use

of material things that a person finds full life for the body, develops the mind, and unfolds the

soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to him or her to be rich.

It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich; if you are a normal man or woman you

cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the Science

of Getting Rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study,

you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God and humanity; for you can render to God and

humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.

Chapter 2 - There is A Science of Getting Rich

THERE is a Science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There

are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and

obeyed by any person, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.

The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way; those

who do things in this Certain Way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich; while those who

do not do things in this Certain Way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain

poor.

It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects; and therefore, any man or woman

who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich.

That the above statement is true is shown by the following facts:

Getting rich is not a matter of environment, for, if it were, all the people in certain neighborhoods

would become wealthy; the people of one city would all be rich, while those of other towns

would all be poor; or the inhabitants of one state would roll in wealth, while those of an

adjoining state would be in poverty.

But everywhere we see rich and poor living side by side, in the same environment, and often

engaged in the same vocations. When two people are in the same locality, and in the same

business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it shows that getting rich is not,

primarily, a matter of environment. Some environments may be more favorable than others, but

when two people in the same business are in the same neighborhood, and one gets rich while the

other fails, it indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way.

And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely to the possession of

talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while others who have very little

talent get rich.

Studying the people who have become rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects,

having no greater talents and abilities than other people. It is evident that they do not get rich

because they possess talents and abilities that other people do not have, but because they happen

to do things in a Certain Way.

Getting rich is not the result of saving, or "thrift"; many very penurious people are poor, while

free spenders often get rich.

Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do; for two people in the same

business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains poor

or becomes bankrupt.

From all these things, we must come to the conclusion that getting rich is the result of doing

things in a Certain Way.

If getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way, and if like causes always produce

like effects, then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become rich, and the

whole matter is brought within the domain of an exact science.

The question arises here, whether this Certain Way may not be so difficult that only a few may

follow it. This cannot be true, as we have seen, so far as natural ability is concerned. Talented

people get rich, and blockheads get rich; intellectually brilliant people get rich, and very stupid

people get rich; physically strong people get rich and weak and sickly people get rich.

Some degree of ability to think and understand is, of course, essential; but in so far as natural

ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense enough to read and understand these

words can certainly get rich.

Also, we have seen that it is not a matter of environment. Location counts for something; one

would not go to the heart of the Sahara and expect to do successful business. Getting rich

involves the necessity of dealing with people and of being where there are people to deal with;

and if these people are inclined to deal in the way you want to deal, so much the better. But that

is about as far as environment goes.

If anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you; and if anybody else in your state can get

rich, so can you.

Again, it is not a matter of choosing some particular business or profession. People get rich in

every business, and in every profession; while their next door neighbors in the same vocation

remain in poverty.

It is true that you will do best in a business which you like, and which is congenial to you; and if

you have certain talents which are well developed, you will do best in a business which calls for

the exercise of those talents.

Also, you will do best in a business which is suited to your locality; an ice-cream parlor would

do better in a warm climate than in Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed better in the

Northwest than in Florida, where there are no salmon.

But, aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not dependent upon your engaging in

some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a Certain Way. If you are now in

business, and anybody else in your locality is getting rich in the same business, while you are not

getting rich, it is because you are not doing things in the same Way that the other person is doing

them.

No one is prevented from getting rich by lack of capital. True, as you get capital the increase

becomes more easy and rapid. But no matter how poor you may be, if you begin to do things in

the Certain Way you will begin to get rich; and you will begin to have capital. The getting of

capital is a part of the process of getting rich; and it is a part of the result which invariably

follows the doing of things in the Certain Way. You may be the poorest person on the planet, and

be deeply in debt; you may have neither friends, influence, nor resources; but if you begin to do

things in this way, you must infallibly begin to get rich, for like causes must produce like effects.

If you have no capital, you can get capital; if you are in the wrong business, you can get into the

right business; if you are in the wrong location, you can go to the right location; and you can do

so by beginning in your present business and in your present location to do things in the Certain

Way which causes success.

Chapter 3 - Is Opportunity Monopolized?

NO one is kept poor because opportunity has been taken away; because other people have

monopolized the wealth, and have put a fence around it. You may be shut off from engaging in

business in certain lines, but there are other channels open to you.

At different periods the tide of opportunity sets in different directions, according to the needs of

the whole, and the particular stage of social evolution which has been reached. There is

abundance of opportunity for the person who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim

against it.

Office workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not deprived of opportunity. The workers

are not being "kept down" by their masters; they are not being "ground" by the trusts and

combinations of capital. As a class, they are where they are because they do not do things in a

Certain Way.

The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a

Certain Way; the law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others. This they must learn;

that they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do. The individual

worker, however, is not held down by the ignorance or the mental slothfulness of his or her class;

that person can follow the tide of opportunity to riches, and this book will show the way.

No one is kept in poverty by a shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for

all. A palace as large as the capitol at Washington could be built for every family on earth from

the building material in the United States alone; and under intensive cultivation, this country

would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than

Solomon was arrayed in all his glory; together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously.

The visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible.

Everything you see on earth is made from one original substance, out of which all things

proceed.

New Forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all are shapes assumed

by One Thing.

There is no limit to the supply of Formless Stuff, or Original Substance. The universe is made

out of it; but it was not all used in making the universe. The spaces in, through, and between the

forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the Original Substance; with the

formless Stuff; with the raw material of all things. Ten thousand times as much as has been made

might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw

material.

No one, therefore, is poor because nature is poor, or because there is not enough to go around.

Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. Original

Substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. When the

supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced; when the soil is exhausted so

that food stuffs and materials for clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more

soil will be made. When all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if human beings are

still in such a stage of social development to need gold and silver, more will be produced from

the Formless. The Formless Stuff responds to the needs of mankind; it will not let them be

without any good thing.

This is true of mankind collectively; the race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if

individuals are poor, it is because they do not follow the Certain Way of doing things which

makes the individual person rich.

The Formless Stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. It is alive, and is always impelled

toward more life.

It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to

enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression.

The universe of forms has been made by Formless Living Substance, throwing itself into form in

order to express itself more fully.

The universe is a great Living Presence, always moving inherently toward more life and fuller

functioning.

Nature is formed for the advancement of life; its impelling motive is the increase of life. For this

cause, everything which can possibly minister to life is bountifully provided; there can be no lack

unless God is to contradict himself and nullify his own works.

You are not kept poor by lack in the supply of riches; it is a fact which I shall demonstrate a little

farther on that even the resources of the Formless Supply are at the command of the man or

woman who will think and act in a Certain Way.

Chapter 4 - The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich

THOUGHT is the only power which can produce tangible riches from the Formless Substance.

The stuff from which all things are made is a substance which thinks, and a thought of form in

this substance produces the form.

Original Substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in nature is

the visible expression of a thought in Original Substance. As the Formless Stuff thinks of a form,

it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is the way all things were

created. We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought universe. The thought of a moving

universe extended throughout Formless Substance, and the Thinking Stuff moving according to

that thought, took the form of systems of planets, and maintains that form. Thinking Substance

takes the form of its thought, and moves according to the thought. Holding the idea of a circling

system of suns and worlds, it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks.

Thinking the form of a slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree,

though centuries may be required to do the work. In creating, the Formless seems to move

according to the lines of motion it has established; the thought of an oak tree does not cause the

instant formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces which will produce

the tree, along established lines of growth.

Every thought of form, held in thinking Substance, causes the creation of the form, but always,

or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.

The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon Formless Substance,

might not cause the instant formation of the house; but it would cause the turning of creative

energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the speedy

building of the house. And if there were no existing channels through which the creative energy

could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance, without waiting for

the slow processes of the organic and inorganic world.

No thought of form can be impressed upon Original Substance without causing the creation of

the form.

A human being is a thinking center, and can originate thought. All the forms that a person

fashions with his or her hands must first exist in thought; a person cannot shape a thing until that

person has thought that thing. And so far the human race has confined its efforts wholly to the

work of its hands; it has applied manual labor to the world of forms, seeking to change or modify

those already existing. The human race has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new

forms by impressing its thoughts upon Formless Substance.

When a person has a thought-form, material is taken from the forms of nature, and an image of

the form which is in the mind is made. Human kind has, so far, made little or no effort to co-

operate with Formless Intelligence; to work "with the Father." People have not dreamed that they

can "do what they seeth the Father doing." Mankind reshapes and modifies existing forms by

manual labor; it has given no attention to the question whether it may not produce things from

Formless Substance by communicating its thoughts to it. We propose to prove that we may do

so; to prove that any man or woman may do so, and to show how. As our first step, we must lay

down three fundamental propositions.

First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff, or substance, from which all things are

made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one element; all the

many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different shapes, made from the same

stuff. And this stuff is thinking stuff; a thought held in it produces the form of the thought.

Thought, in thinking substance, produces shapes. A human being is a thinking center, capable of

original thought; if a person can communicate a thought to original thinking substance, that

person can cause the creation, or formation, of the thing that is thought about. To summarize

this:-

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made and which, in its original state,

permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance,

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

It may be asked if I can prove these statements; and without going into details, I answer that I

can do so, both by logic and experience.

Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original thinking

substance; and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to an individual’s power

to cause the formation of the thing one thinks about.

And by experiment, I find this reasoning to be true; and this is my strongest proof.

If one person who reads this book gets rich by doing what this book says to do, that is evidence

in support of my claim; and if every man or woman who does what it tells them to do gets rich,

that is positive proof until some one goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until

the process fails; and this process will not fail, for every person who does exactly what this book

says to do will get rich.

I have said that a person gets rich by doing things in a Certain Way; and in order to do so, a

person must become able to think in a certain way.

A person's way of doing things is the direct result of the way that person thinks about things.

To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way

you want to think; this is the first step toward getting rich.

To think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances.

You have the natural and inherent power to think what you want to think, but it requires far more

effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think

according to appearance is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious, and

requires the expenditure of more power than any other work you are called upon to perform.

There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and

consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is

contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding

form in the mind which observes it; and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the

TRUTH.

To look upon the appearance of disease will produce the form of disease in your own mind, and

ultimately in your body, unless you hold the thought of the truth, which is that there is no

disease; it is only an appearance, and the reality is health.

To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind,

unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.

To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease, or to think riches when in the

midst of the appearance of poverty, requires power; but a person who acquires this power

becomes a MASTER MIND. That person can conquer fate and can have what is wanted.

This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all

appearances; and that fact is that there is one Thinking Substance, from which and by which all

things are made.

Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that

a person can so impress thought upon it so as to cause it to take form and become a visible thing.

When we realize this, we lose all doubt and fear, for we know that we can create what we want

to create; we can get what we want to have, and can become what we want to be. As a first step

toward getting rich, you must believe the three fundamental statements given previously in this

chapter; and in order to emphasize them. I repeat them here:-

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made and which, in its original state,

permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance,

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe than this monistic one; and you must dwell

upon this until it is fixed in your mind and has become your habitual thought. Read these creed

statements over and over again; fix every word upon your memory and meditate upon them until

you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast it aside as a sin. Do not listen to

arguments against this idea; do not go to churches or lectures where a contrary concept of things

is taught or preached. Do not read magazines or books which teach a different idea; if you get

mixed up in your faith, all your efforts will be in vain.

Do not ask why these things are true, nor speculate as to how they can be true; simply take them

on trust.

The science of getting rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this faith.

Chapter 5 - Increasing Life

YOU must get rid of the last vestige of the old idea that there is a Deity whose will it is that you

should be poor, or whose purposes may be served by keeping you in poverty.

The Intelligent Substance which is All, and in All, and which lives in All and lives in you, is a

consciously Living Substance. Being a consciously living substance, It must have the nature and

inherent desire of every living intelligence for increase of life. Every living thing must

continually seek for the enlargement of its life, because life, in the mere act of living, must

increase itself.

A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity, and in the act of living produces a hundred

more seeds; life, by living, multiplies itself. It is forever Becoming More; it must do so, if it is to

continue to be at all.

Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. Every thought we think makes

it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding. Every fact

we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is continually increasing. Every

talent we cultivate brings to the mind the desire to cultivate another talent; we are subject to the

urge of life, seeking expression, which ever drives us on to know more, to do more, and to be

more.

In order to know more, do more, and be more we must have more; we must have things to use,

for we learn, and do, and become, only by using things. We must get rich, so that we can live

more.

The desire for riches is simply the capacity for larger life seeking fulfillment; every desire is the

effort of an unexpressed possibility to come into action. It is power seeking to manifest which

causes desire. That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the

plant grow; it is Life, seeking fuller expression.

The One Living Substance must be subject to this inherent law of all life; it is permeated with the

desire to live more; that is why it is under the necessity of creating things.

The One Substance desires to live more in you; hence it wants you to have all the things you can

use.

It is the desire of God that you should get rich. He wants you to get rich because he can express

himself better through you if you have plenty of things to use in giving him expression. He can

live more in you if you have unlimited command of the means of life.

The universe desires you to have everything you want to have.

Nature is friendly to your plans.

Everything is naturally for you.

Make up your mind that this is true.

It is essential, however that your purpose should harmonize with the purpose that is in All.

You must want real life, not mere pleasure of sensual gratification. Life is the performance of

function; and the individual really lives only when they perform every function, physical, mental,

and spiritual of which they are capable, without excess in any.

You do not want to get rich in order to live swinishly, for the gratification of animal desires; that

is not life. But the performance of every physical function is a part of life, and no one lives

completely who denies the impulses of the body a normal and healthful expression.

You do not want to get rich solely to enjoy mental pleasures, to get knowledge, to gratify

ambition, to outshine others, or to be famous. All these are a legitimate part of life, but the

person who lives for the pleasures of the intellect alone will only have a partial life, and will

never be satisfied with their lot.

You do not want to get rich solely for the good of others, to lose yourself for the salvation of

mankind, to experience the joys of philanthropy and sacrifice. The joys of the soul are only a part

of life; and they are no better or nobler than any other part.

You want to get rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do these

things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant lands, feed your

mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love everyone and do kind things, and be

able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth.

But remember that extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are

mistakes.

Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, and that you can secure his

favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind.

What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you

can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.

You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich; so it is right and praiseworthy that you

should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth.

Remember, however, that the desire of Substance is for all, and its movements must be for more

life to all; it cannot be made to work for less life to any, because it is equally in all, seeking

riches and life.

Intelligent Substance will make things for you, but it will not take things away from some one

else and give them to you.

You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is

already created.

You do not have to take anything away from any one.

You do not have to drive sharp bargains.

You do not have to cheat, or to take advantage. You do not need to let anyone work for you for

less than is earned.

You do not have to covet the property of others, or to look at it with wishful eyes; no one has

anything of which you cannot have the like, and that without taking what they have away from

them.

You are to become a creator, not a competitor; you are going to get what you want, but in such a

way that when you get it every other man or woman will have more than they have now.

I am aware that there are people who get a vast amount of money by proceeding in direct

opposition to the statements in the paragraph above, and so I will add a word of explanation here.

These are people of the plutocratic type, who become very rich, who do so sometimes purely by

their extraordinary ability on the plane of competition; and sometimes they unconsciously relate

themselves to Substance in its great purposes and movements for the general upbuilding through

economic evolution. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, et al., have been the unconscious agents of

the Supreme in the necessary work of systematizing and organizing productive industry; and in

the end, their work will contribute immensely toward increased life for all. Their day is nearly

over; they have organized production, and will soon be succeeded by the agents of the multitude,

who will organize the machinery of distribution.

The multi-millionaires are like the monster reptiles of the prehistoric eras; they play a necessary

part in the evolutionary process, but the same Power which produced them will dispose of them.

And it is well to bear in mind that they have never been really rich; a record of the private lives

of most of this class will show that they have really been the most abject and wretched of the

poor.

Riches secured on the competitive plane are never satisfactory and permanent; they are yours to-

day, and another's tomorrow. Remember, if you are to become rich in a scientific and certain

way, you must rise entirely out of the competitive thought. You must never think for a moment

that the supply is limited. Just as soon as you begin to think that all the money is being

"cornered" and controlled by bankers and others, and that you must exert yourself to get laws

passed to stop this process, and so on; in that moment you drop into the competitive mind, and

your power to cause creation is gone for the time being; and what is worse, you will probably

arrest the creative movements you have already instituted.

KNOW that there are countless millions of dollars' worth of gold in the mountains of the earth,

not yet brought to light; and know that if there were not, more would be created from Thinking

Substance to supply your needs.

KNOW that the money you need will come, even if it is necessary for a thousand people to be

led to the discovery of new gold mines tomorrow.

Never look at the visible supply; look always at the limitless riches in Formless Substance, and

KNOW that they are coming to you as fast as you can receive and use them. Nobody, by

cornering the visible supply, can prevent you from getting what is yours.

So never allow yourself to think for an instant that all the best building spots will be taken before

you get ready to build your house unless you hurry. Never worry about the trusts and combines

and get anxious for fear they will soon come to own the whole earth. Never be afraid that you

will lose what you want because some other person "beats you to it." That cannot possibly

happen; you are not seeking any thing that is possessed by anybody else; you are causing what

you want to be created from formless Substance, and the supply is without limits. Stick to the

formulated statement:--

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made and which, in its original state,

permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance,

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

Chapter 6 - How Riches Come to You

WHEN I say that you do not have to drive sharp bargains, I do not mean that you do not have to

drive any bargains at all, or that you are above the necessity for having any dealings with other

people. I mean that you will not need to deal with them unfairly; you do not have to get

something for nothing, but you can give to every person more than you take from them. You

cannot give every person more in cash value than you take from them, but you can give them

more in use value than the cash value of the thing you take from them. The paper, ink and other

material in this book may not be worth the money you pay for it; but if the ideas suggested by it

bring you thousands of dollars, you have not been wronged by those who sold it to you; they

have given you a great use value for a small cash value.

Let us suppose that I own a picture by one of the great artists, which, in any civilized community

is worth thousands of dollars. I take it to Baffin Bay and by "salesmanship" induce an Eskimo to

give a bundle of furs worth $500 for it. I have really wronged him, for he has no use for the

picture; it has no use value to him; it will not add to his life.

But suppose I give him a gun worth $50 for his furs; then he has made a good bargain. He has

use for the gun; it will get him many more furs and much food; it will add to his life in every

way; it will make him rich.

When you rise from the competitive to the creative plane, you can scan your business

transactions very strictly, and if you are selling any person anything which does not add more to

life than the thing that is given you in exchange, you can afford to stop it. You do not have to

beat anybody in business. And if you are in a business which does beat people, get out of it at

once.

Give every person more in use value than you take in cash value; then you are adding to the life

of the world by every business transaction.

If you have people working for you, you must take from them more in cash value than you pay

them in wages; but you can so organize your business that it will be filled with the principle of

advancement, and so that each employee who wishes to do so may advance a little every day.

You can make your business do for your employees what this book is doing for you. You can so

conduct your business that it will be a sort of ladder, by which every employee who will take the

trouble may climb to riches them self; and given the opportunity, if they will not do so it is not

your fault.

And finally, because you are to cause the creation of your riches from Formless Substance which

permeates all throughout your environment, it does not follow that they are to take shape from

the atmosphere and come into being before your eyes.

If you want a sewing machine, for instance, I do not mean to tell you that you are to impress the

thought of a sewing machine on Thinking Substance until the machine is formed without hands,

in the room where you sit, or elsewhere. But if you want a sewing machine, hold the mental

image of it with the most positive certainty that it is being made, or is on its way to you. After

once forming the thought, have the most absolute and unquestioning faith that the sewing

machine is coming; never think of it, or speak of it, in any other way than as being sure to arrive.

Claim it as already yours.

It will be brought to you by the power of the Supreme Intelligence, acting upon the minds of

mankind. If you live in Maine, it may be that a person will be brought from Texas or Japan to

engage in some transaction which will result in your getting what you want.

If so, the whole matter will be as much to that person's advantage as it is to yours.

Do not forget for a moment that the Thinking Substance is through all, in all, communicating

with all, and can influence all. The desire of Thinking Substance for fuller life and better living

has caused the creation of all the sewing machines already made; and it can cause the creation of

millions more, and will, whenever mankind sets it in motion by desire and faith, and by acting in

a Certain Way.

You can certainly have a sewing machine in your house; and it is just as certain that you can

have any other thing or things which you want, and which you will use for the advancement of

your own life and the lives of others.

You need not hesitate about asking largely; "it is your Father's pleasure to give you the

kingdom," said Jesus.

Original Substance wants to live all that is possible in you, and wants you to have all that you

can or will use for the living of the most abundant life.

If you fix upon your consciousness the fact that the desire you feel for the possession of riches is

one with the desire of Omnipotence for more complete expression, your faith becomes

invincible.

Once I saw a little boy sitting at a piano, and vainly trying to bring harmony out of the keys; and

I saw that he was grieved and provoked by his inability to play real music. I asked him the cause

of his vexation, and he answered, "I can feel the music in me, but I can't make my hands go

right." The music in him was the URGE of Original Substance, containing all the possibilities of

all life; all that there is of music was seeking expression through the child.

God, the One Substance, is trying to live and do and enjoy things through humanity. He is saying

"I want hands to build wonderful structures, to play divine harmonies, to paint glorious pictures;

I want feet to run my errands, eyes to see my beauties, tongues to tell mighty truths and to sing

marvelous songs," and so on.

All that there is of possibility is seeking expression through mankind. God wants those who can

play music to have pianos and every other instrument, and to have the means to cultivate their

talents to the fullest extent; He wants those who can appreciate beauty to be able to surround

themselves with beautiful things; He wants those who can discern truth to have every

opportunity to travel and observe; He wants those who can appreciate dress to be beautifully

clothed, and those who can appreciate good food to be luxuriously fed.

He wants all these things because it is Himself that enjoys and appreciates them; it is God who

wants to play, and sing, and enjoy beauty, and proclaim truth and wear fine clothes, and eat good

foods. "it is God that worketh in you to will and to do," said Paul.

The desire you feel for riches is the infinite, seeking to express Himself in you as He sought to

find expression in the little boy at the piano.

So you need not hesitate to ask largely.

Your part is to focalize and express the desire to God.

This is a difficult point with most people; they retain something of the old idea that poverty and

self-sacrifice are pleasing to God. They look upon poverty as a part of the plan, a necessity of

nature. They have the idea that God has finished His work, and made all that He can make, and

that the majority of mankind must stay poor because there is not enough to go around. They hold

to so much of this erroneous thought that they feel ashamed to ask for wealth; they try not to

want more than a very modest competence, just enough to make them fairly comfortable.

I recall now the case of one student who was told that he must get in mind a clear picture of the

things he desired, so that the creative thought of them might be impressed on Formless

Substance. He was a very poor man, living in a rented house, and having only what he earned

from day to day; and he could not grasp the fact that all wealth was his. So, after thinking the

matter over, he decided that he might reasonably ask for a new rug for the floor of his best room,

and an anthracite coal stove to heat the house during the cold weather. Following the instructions

given in this book, he obtained these things in a few months; and then it dawned upon him that

he had not asked enough. He went through the house in which he lived, and planned all the

improvements he would like to make in it; he mentally added a bay window here and a room

there, until it was complete in his mind as his ideal home; and then he planned its furnishings.

Holding the whole picture in his mind, he began living in the Certain Way, and moving toward

what he wanted; and he owns the house now, and is rebuilding it after the form of his mental

image. And now, with still larger faith, he is going on to get greater things. It has been unto him

according to his faith, and it is so with you and with all of us.

Chapter 7 - Gratitude

THE illustrations given in the last chapter will have conveyed to the reader the fact that the first

step toward getting rich is to convey the idea of your wants to the Formless Substance.

This is true, and you will see that in order to do so it becomes necessary to relate yourself to the

Formless Intelligence in a harmonious way.

To secure this harmonious relation is a matter of such primary and vital importance that I shall

give some space to its discussion here, and give you instructions which, if you will follow them,

will be certain to bring you into perfect unity of mind with God.

The whole process of mental adjustment and attunement can be summed up in one word,

gratitude.

First, you believe that there is one Intelligent Substance, from which all things proceed; second,

you believe that this Substance gives you everything you desire; and third, you relate yourself to

it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude.

Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of

gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with Him

by failing to make acknowledgment.

It is easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth we shall

receive; and it is easy also to understand that the soul that is always grateful lives in closer touch

with God than the one which never looks to Him in thankful acknowledgment.

The more gratefully we fix our minds on the Supreme when good things come to us, the more

good things we will receive, and the more rapidly they will come; and the reason simply is that

the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which the

blessings come.

If it is a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the

creative energies of the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true. The good things

you already have came to you along the line of obedience to certain laws. Gratitude will lead

your mind out along the ways by which things come; and it will keep you in close harmony with

creative thought and prevent you from falling into competitive thought.

Gratitude alone can keep you looking toward the All, and prevent you from falling into the error

of thinking of the supply as limited; and to do that would be fatal to your hopes.

There is a Law of Gratitude and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the law if you

are to get the results you seek.

The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in

opposite directions.

The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the Supreme is a liberation or

expenditure of force; it cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed, and the reaction is an

instantaneous movement towards you.

"Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you." That is a statement of psychological

truth.

And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in Formless Substance will be strong

and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be always toward you. Notice the

grateful attitude that Jesus took; how He always seems to be saying, "I thank Thee, Father, that

Thou hearest me." You cannot exercise much power without gratitude; for it is gratitude that

keeps you connected with Power.

But the value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future.

Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are.

The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you

begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the ordinary, the poor, and the squalid

and mean; and your mind takes the form of these things. Then you will transmit these forms or

mental images to the Formless, and the common, the poor, the squalid, and mean will come to

you.

To permit your mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and to surround yourself

with inferior things.

On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best, and to

become the best.

The Creative Power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention.

We are Thinking Substance, and thinking substance always takes the form of that which it thinks

about.

The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best; therefore it tends to become the best; it takes

the form or character of the best, and will receive the best.

Also, faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things, and

expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one's own mind produces faith; and

every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. The person who has no feeling of

gratitude cannot long retain a living faith; and without a living faith you cannot get rich by the

creative method, as we shall see in the following chapters.

It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to

you; and to give thanks continuously.

And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in

your gratitude.

Do not waste time thinking or talking about the shortcomings or wrong actions of plutocrats or

trust magnates. Their organization of the world has made your opportunity; all you get really

comes to you because of them.

Do not rage against corrupt politicians; if it were not for politicians we should fall into anarchy,

and your opportunity would be greatly lessened.

God has worked a long time and very patiently to bring us up to where we are in industry and

government, and He is going right on with His work. There is not the least doubt that He will do

away with plutocrats, trust magnates, captains of industry, and politicians as soon as they can be

spared; but in the meantime, behold they are all very good. Remember that they are all helping to

arrange the lines of transmission along which your riches will come to you, so be grateful to

them all. This will bring you into harmonious relations with the good in everything, and the good

in everything will move toward you.

Chapter 8 - Thinking in the Certain Way

TURN back to chapter 6 and read again the story of the man who formed a mental image of his

house, and you will get a fair idea of the initial step toward getting rich. You must form a clear

and definite mental picture of what you want; you cannot transmit an idea unless you have it

yourself.

You must have it before you can give it; and many people fail to impress Thinking Substance

because they have themselves only a vague and misty concept of the things they want to do, to

have, or to become.

It is not enough that you should have a general desire for wealth "to do good with"; everybody

has that desire.

It is not enough that you should have a wish to travel, see things, live more, etc. Everybody has

those desires, too. If you were going to send a wireless message to a friend, you would not send

the letters of the alphabet in their order, and let your friend construct the message; nor would you

take words at random from the dictionary. You would send a coherent sentence; one which

meant something. When you try to impress your wants upon Substance, remember that it must be

done by a coherent statement; you must know what you want, and be definite. You can never get

rich, or start the creative power into action, by sending out unformed longings and vague desires.

Go over your desires just as the man I have described went over his house; see just what you

want, and get a clear mental picture of it as you wish it to look when you get it.

You must have that clear mental picture continually in mind, as the sailor has in mind the port

toward which he is sailing the ship; you must keep your face toward it all the time. You must no

more lose sight of it than the steersman loses sight of the compass.

It is not necessary to take exercises in concentration, nor to set apart special times for prayer and

affirmation, nor to "go into the silence," nor to do occult stunts of any kind. There things are well

enough, but all you need is to know what you want, and to want it badly enough so that it will

stay in your thoughts.

Spend as much of your leisure time as you can in contemplating your picture, but remember that

you do not need to take exercises to concentrate your mind on a thing which you really want; it

is the things you do not really care about which require effort to fix your attention upon them.

And unless you really want to get rich, so that the desire is strong enough to hold your thoughts

directed to the purpose as the magnetic pole holds the needle of the compass, it will hardly be

worth while for you to try to carry out the instructions given in this book.

The methods herein set forth are for people whose desire for riches is strong enough to overcome

mental laziness and the love of ease, and make them work.

The more clear and definite you make your picture, and the more you dwell upon it, bringing out

all its delightful details, the stronger your desire will be; and the stronger your desire, the easier it

will be to hold your mind fixed upon the picture of what you want.

Something more is necessary, however, than merely to see the picture clearly. If that is all you

do, you are only a dreamer, and will have little or no power for accomplishment.

Behind your clear vision must be the purpose to realize it; to bring it out in tangible expression.

And behind this purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that the thing is already

yours; that it is "at hand" and you have only to take possession of it.

Live in the new house mentally, until it takes form around you physically. In the mental realm,

enter at once into full enjoyment of the things you want.

"Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have

them," said Jesus.

See the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time; see yourself as owning

and using them. Make use of them in imagination just as you will use them when they are your

tangible possessions. Dwell upon your mental picture until it is clear and distinct, and then take

the Mental Attitude of Ownership toward everything in that picture. Take possession of it, in

mind, in the full faith that it is actually yours. Hold to this mental ownership; do not waiver for

an instant in the faith that it is real.

And remember what was said in a proceeding chapter about gratitude; be as thankful for it all the

time as you expect to be when it has taken form. The individual, who can sincerely thank God

for the things which as yet are owned only in imagination, has real faith. That person will get

rich; and will cause the creation of whatsoever is wanted.

You do not need to pray repeatedly for things you want; it is not necessary to tell God about it

every day.

"Use not vain repetitions as the heathen do," said Jesus said to his pupils, "for your Father

knoweth that ye have need of these things before ye ask Him."

Your part is to intelligently formulate your desire for the things which make for a larger life and

to get these desires arranged into a coherent whole; and then to impress this Whole Desire upon

the Formless Substance, which has the power and the will to bring you what you want.

You do not make this impression by repeating strings of words; you make it by holding the

vision with unshakable PURPOSE to attain it, and with steadfast FAITH that you do attain it.

The answer to prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according to your

faith while you are working.

You cannot impress the mind of God by having a special Sabbath day set apart to tell Him what

you want, and then forgetting Him during the rest of the week. You cannot impress Him by

having special hours to go into your closet and pray, if you then dismiss the matter from your

mind until the hour of prayer comes again.

Oral prayer is well enough and has its effect, especially upon yourself, in clarifying your vision

and strengthening your faith; but it is not your oral petitions which get you what you want. In

order to get rich you do not need a "sweet hour of prayer"; you need to "pray without ceasing."

And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision with the purpose to cause its creation into

solid form and the faith that you are doing so.

"Believe that ye receive them."

The whole matter turns on receiving, once you have clearly formed your vision. When you have

formed it, it is well to make an oral statement, addressing the Supreme in reverent prayer; and

from that moment you must, in mind, receive what you ask for. Live in the new house; wear the

fine clothes; ride in the automobile; go on the journey, and confidently plan for greater journeys.

Think and speak of all the things you have asked for in terms of actual present ownership.

Imagine an environment, and a financial condition exactly as you want them, and live all the

time in that imaginary environment and financial condition. Mind, however, that you do not do

this as a mere dreamer and castle builder; hold to the FAITH that the imaginary is being realized,

and to the PURPOSE to realize it. Remember that it is faith and purpose in the use of the

imagination which make the difference between the scientist and the dreamer. And having

learned this fact, it is here that you must learn the proper use of the Will.

Chapter 9 - How to Use the Will

TO set about getting rich in a scientific way, you do not need to apply your will power to

anything outside of yourself.

You have no right to do so, anyway.

It is wrong to apply your will to other men and women, in order to get them to do what you wish

done.

It is as flagrantly wrong to coerce people by mental power as it is to coerce them by physical

power. If compelling people by physical force to do things for you reduces them to slavery,

compelling them by mental means accomplishes exactly the same thing; the only difference is in

the method. If taking things from people by physical force is robbery, then taking things by

mental force is robbery also; there is no difference in principle.

You have no right to use your will power upon other people, even "for their own good"; for you

do not know what is for their good. The science of getting rich does not require you to apply

power or force to any other person, in any way whatsoever. There is not the slightest necessity

for doing so; indeed, any attempt to use your will upon others will only tend to defeat your

purpose.

You do not need to apply your will to things, in order to compel them to come to you.

That would simply be trying to coerce God, and would be foolish and useless, as well as

irreverent.

You do not have to compel God to give you good things, any more than you have to use your

will power to make the sun rise.

You do not have to use your will power to conquer an unfriendly deity, or to make stubborn and

rebellious forces do your bidding.

Substance is friendly to you and is more anxious to give you what you want than you are to get

it.

To get rich, you need only to use your will power upon yourself.

When you know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think

and do the right things. That is the legitimate use of the will in getting what you want--to use it in

holding yourself to the right course. Use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting in the

Certain Way.

Do not try to project your will, or your thoughts, or your mind out into space, to "act" on things

or people.

Keep your mind at home; it can accomplish more there than elsewhere.

Use your mind to form a mental image of what you want, and to hold that vision with faith and

purpose; and use your will to keep your mind working in the Right Way.

The more steady and continuous your faith and purpose, the more rapidly you will get rich,

because you will make only POSITIVE impressions upon Substance; and you will not neutralize

or offset them by negative impressions.

The picture of your desires, held with faith and purpose, is taken up by the Formless and

permeates it to great distances - perhaps throughout the universe.

As this impression spreads, all things are set moving toward its realization; every living thing,

every inanimate thing, and the things yet uncreated are stirred toward bringing into being that

which you want. All force begins to be exerted in that direction; all things begin to move toward

you. The minds of people, everywhere, are influenced toward doing the things necessary to the

fulfilling of your desires; and they work for you, unconsciously.

But you can check all this by starting a negative impression in the Formless Substance. Doubt or

unbelief is as certain to start a movement away from you as faith and purpose are to start one

toward you. It is by not understanding this that most people who try to make use of "mental

science" in getting rich make their failure. Every hour and moment you spend in giving heed to

doubts and fears, every hour you spend in worry, every hour in which your soul is possessed by

unbelief, sets a current away from you in the whole domain of intelligent Substance. All the

promises are unto them that believe and unto them only. Notice how insistent Jesus was upon

this point of belief; and now you know the reason why.

Since belief is all important, it behooves you to guard your thoughts; and as your beliefs will be

shaped to a very great extent by the things you observe and think about, it is important that you

should command your attention.

And here the will comes into use; for it is by your will that you determine upon what things your

attention shall be fixed.

If you want to become rich, you must not make a study of poverty.

Things are not brought into being by thinking about their opposites. Health is never to be

attained by studying disease and thinking about disease; righteousness is not to be promoted by

studying sin and thinking about sin; and no one ever got rich by studying poverty and thinking

about poverty.

Medicine as a science of disease has increased disease; religion as a science of sin has promoted

sin, and economics as a study of poverty will fill the world with wretchedness and want.

Do not talk about poverty; do not investigate it, or concern yourself with it. Never mind what its

causes are; you have nothing to do with them.

What concerns you is the cure.

You must not try to eradicate poverty in any of the conventional ways. Put poverty behind you,

and put all that pertains to it behind you, and "make good."

Get rich; that is the best way you can help the poor.

You cannot hold the mental image which is to make you rich if you fill your mind with pictures

of poverty. Do not read books or papers which give circumstantial accounts of the wretchedness

of the tenement dwellers, of the horrors of child labor, and so on. Do not read anything which

fills your mind with gloomy images of want and suffering.

You cannot help the poor in the least by knowing about these things; and the wide-spread

knowledge of them does not tend at all to do away with poverty.

What tends to do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty into your mind, but

getting pictures of wealth into the minds of the poor.

You are not deserting the poor in their misery when you refuse to allow your mind to be filled

with pictures of that misery.

Poverty can be done away with, not by increasing the number of well to do people who think

about poverty, but by increasing the number of poor people who purpose with faith to get rich.

The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to

keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an

hour or two; but inspiration will cause them to rise out of their misery. If you want to help the

poor, demonstrate to them that they can become rich; prove it by getting rich yourself.

The only way in which poverty will ever be banished from this world is by getting a large and

constantly increasing number of people to practice the teachings of this book.

People must be taught to become rich by creation, not by competition.

Every person who becomes rich by competition throws down the ladder that was used to rise,

and keeps others down; but every person who gets rich by creation opens a way for thousands to

follow, and inspires them to do so.

You are not showing hardness of heart or an unfeeling disposition when you refuse to pity

poverty, see poverty, read about poverty, or think or talk about it, or to listen to those who do

talk about it. Use your will power to keep your mind OFF the subject of poverty, and to keep it

fixed with faith and purpose ON the vision of what you want.

Chapter 10 - Further Use of the Will

YOU cannot retain a true and clear vision of wealth if you are constantly turning your attention

to opposing pictures, whether they are external or imaginary.

Do not tell of your past troubles of a financial nature, if you have had them, do not think of them

at all. Do not tell of the poverty of your parents or the hardships of your early life; to do any of

these things is to mentally class yourself with the poor for the time being, and it will certainly

check the movement of things in your direction.

"Let the dead bury their dead," as Jesus said.

Put poverty and all things that pertain to poverty completely behind you.

You have accepted a certain theory of the universe as being correct, and are resting all your

hopes of happiness on its being correct; and what can you gain by giving heed to conflicting

theories?

Do not read religious books which tell you that the world is soon coming to an end; and do not

read the writing of muck-rakers and pessimistic philosophers who tell you that it is going to the

devil.

The world is not going to the devil; it is going to God.

It is a wonderful Becoming.

True, there may be a good many things in existing conditions which are disagreeable; but what is

the use of studying them when they are certainly passing away, and when the study of them only

tends to check their passing and keep them with us? Why give time and attention to things which

are being removed by evolutionary growth, when you can hasten their removal only by

promoting the evolutionary growth as far as your part of it goes?

No matter how horrible in seeming may be the conditions in certain countries, sections, or

places, you waste your time and destroy your own chances by considering them.

You should interest yourself in the world's becoming rich.

Think of the riches the world is coming into, instead of the poverty it is growing out of; and bear

in mind that the only way in which you can assist the world in growing rich is by growing rich

yourself through the creative method--not the competitive one.

Give your attention wholly to riches; ignore poverty.

Whenever you think or speak of those who are poor, think and speak of them as those who are

becoming rich; as those who are to be congratulated rather than pitied. Then they and others will

catch the inspiration, and begin to search for the way out.

Because I say that you are to give your whole time and mind and thought to riches, it does not

follow that you are to be sordid or mean.

To become really rich is the noblest aim you can have in life, for it includes everything else. On

the competitive plane, the struggle to get rich is a Godless scramble for power over other people;

but when we come into the creative mind, all this is changed.

All that is possible in the way of greatness and soul unfoldment, of service and lofty endeavor,

comes by way of getting rich; all is made possible by the use of things.

If you lack for physical health, you will find that the attainment of it is conditional on your

getting rich.

Only those who are emancipated from financial worry, and who have the means to live a care-

free existence and follow hygienic practices, can have and retain health.

Moral and spiritual greatness is possible only to those who are above the competitive battle for

existence; and only those who are becoming rich on the plane of creative thought are free from

the degrading influences of competition. If your heart is set on domestic happiness, remember

that love flourishes best where there is refinement, a high level of thought and freedom from

corrupting influences; and these are to be found only where riches are attained by the exercise of

creative thought, without strife or rivalry.

You can aim at nothing so great or noble, I repeat, as to become rich; and you must fix your

attention upon your mental picture of riches, to the exclusion of all that may tend to dim or

obscure the vision.

You must learn to see the underlying TRUTH in all things; you must see beneath all seemingly

wrong conditions the Great One Life ever moving forward toward fuller expression and more

complete happiness.

It is the truth that there is no such thing as poverty; that there is only wealth.

Some people remain in poverty because they are ignorant of the fact that there is wealth for

them; and these can best be taught by showing them the way to affluence in your own person and

practice.

Others are poor because, while they feel that there is a way out, they are too intellectually

indolent to put forth the mental effort necessary to find that way and to travel it; and for these the

very best thing you can do is to arouse their desire by showing them the happiness that comes

from being rightly rich.

Others still are poor because, while they have some notion of science, they have become so

swamped and lost in the maze of metaphysical and occult theories that they do not know which

road to take. They try a mixture of many systems and fail in all. For these, again, the very best

thing to do is to show the right way in your own person and practice; an ounce of doing things is

worth a pound of theorizing.

The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.

You can serve God and man in no more effective way than by getting rich; that is, if you get rich

by the creative method and not by the competetive one.

We assert that this book gives in detail the principles of the science of getting rich; and if that is

true, you do not need to read any book that contradicts this subject. Study only those books that

support and expound on these principles. There is no more scientific method of computation in

mathematics than by addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; no other method is

possible. There can be but one shortest distance between two points. There is only one way to

think scientifically, and that is to think in the way that leads by the most direct and simple route

to the goal. No man has yet formulated a briefer or less complex "system" than the one set forth

herein; it has been stripped of all non-essentials. When you commence on this, lay all others

aside; put them out of your mind altogether.

Read this book every day; keep it with you; commit it to memory, and do not think about other

"systems" and theories. If you do, you will begin to have doubts and to be uncertain and

wavering in your thought; and then you will begin to make failures.

Read only the most optimistic comments on the world's news; those in harmony with your

picture.

Also, postpone your investigations into the occult. Do not dabble in theosophy, Spiritualism, or

kindred studies. It is very likely that the dead still live, and are near; but if they are, let them

alone; mind your own business.

Wherever the spirits of the dead may be, they have their own work to do, and their own problems

to solve; and we have no right to interfere with them. We cannot help them, and it is very

doubtful whether they can help us, or whether we have any right to trespass upon their time if

they can. Let the dead and the hereafter alone, and solve your own problem; get rich. If you

begin to mix with the occult, you will start mental cross-currents which will surely bring your

hopes to shipwreck. Now, this and the preceding chapters have brought us to the following

statement of basic facts:--

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are mad, and which, in its original state,

permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A though, in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance,

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

In order to do this, you must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; you must form a

clear mental picture of the things you wan, and hold this picture in your thoughts with the fixed

PURPOSE to get what you want and the unwavering FAITH that you will get what you want,

closing your mind to all that may tend to shake your purpose, dim your vision, or quench your

faith.

And in addition to all this, we shall now see that we must live and act in a Certain Way.

Chapter 11 - Acting in the Certain Way

THOUGHT is the creative power, or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act;

thinking in a Certain Way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone,

paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific

metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck--the failure to connect thought with personal action.

We have not yet reached the stage of development, even supposing such a stage to be possible, in

which humankind can create directly from Formless Substance without nature's processes or the

work of human hands; people must not only think, but their personal action must supplement

their thought.

By thought you can cause the gold in the hearts of the mountains to be impelled toward you; but

it will not mine itself, refine itself, coin itself, and come rolling along the roads seeking its way

into your pocket.

Under the impelling power of the Supreme Spirit, a person's affairs will be so ordered that some

one will be led to mine the gold for you; other people's business transactions will be so directed

so that the gold will be brought toward you, and you must so arrange your own business affairs

that you may be able to receive it when it comes to you. Your thought makes all things, animate

and inanimate, work to bring you what you want; but your personal activity must be such that

you can rightly receive what you want when it reaches you. You are not to take it as charity, nor

to steal it; you must give every person more in use value the cash value you receive.

The scientific use of thought consists in forming a clear and distinct mental image of what you

want; in holding fast to the purpose to get what you want; and in realizing with grateful faith that

you do get what you want.

Do not try to 'project' your thought in any mysterious or occult way, with the idea of having it go

out and do things for you; that is wasted effort, and will weaken your power to think with sanity.

The action of thought in getting rich is fully explained in the preceding chapters; your faith and

purpose positively impresses your vision upon Formless Substance, which has THE SAME

DESIRE FOR MORE LIFE THAT YOU HAVE; and this vision, received from you, sets all the

creative forces at work IN AND THROUGH THEIR REGULAR CHANNELS OF ACTION,

but directed toward you.

It is not your part to guide or supervise the creative process; all you have to do with that is to

retain your vision, stick to your purpose, and maintain your faith and gratitude.

But you must act in a Certain Way, so that you can appropriate what is yours when it comes to

you; so that you can meet the things you have in your picture, and put them in their proper places

as they arrive.

You can really see the truth of this. When things reach you, they will be in the hands of other

people, who will ask an equivalent for them.

And you can only get what is yours by giving the other person what is theirs.

Your pocketbook is not going to be transformed into a Fortunata's purse, which shall be always

full of money without effort on your part.

This is the crucial point in the science of getting rich; right here, where thought and personal

action must be combined. There are very many people who, consciously or unconsciously, set

the creative forces in action by the strength and persistence of their desires, but who remain poor

because they do not provide for the reception of the thing they want when it comes.

By thought, the thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.

Whatever your action is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past,

and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your

mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here yet. And you cannot tell how you

will want to act in any future contingency until that contingency has arrived.

Because you are not in the right business, or the right environment now, do not think that you

must postpone action until you get into the right business or environment. And do not spend time

in the present taking thought as to the best course in possible future emergencies; have faith in

your ability to meet any emergency when it arrives.

If you act in the present with your mind on the future, your present action will be with a divided

mind, and will not be effective.

Put your whole mind into present action.

Do not give your creative impulse to Original Substance, and then sit down and wait for results;

if you do, you will never get them. Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never

will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready for the reception of what you

want, you must begin now.

And your action, whatever it is, will most likely be in your present business or employment, and

must be upon the persons and things in your present environment.

You cannot act where you are not; you cannot act where you have been, and you cannot act

where you are going to be; you can act only where you are.

Do not bother as to whether yesterday's work was well done or ill done; do today's work well. Do

not try to do tomorrow's work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it.

Do not try, by occult or mystical means, to act on people or things that are out of your reach.

Do not wait for a change of environment before you act; get a change of environment by action.

You can so act upon the environment in which you are now as to cause yourself to be transferred

to a better environment.

Hold with faith and purpose the vision of yourself in the better environment, but act upon your

present environment with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

Do not spend any time in day dreaming or castle building; hold to the one vision of what you

want, and act NOW.

Do not cast about seeking some new thing to do, or some strange, unusual, or remarkable action

to perform as a first step toward getting rich. It is probable that your actions, at least for some

time to come, will be those you have been performing for some time past; but you are to begin

now to perform these actions in the Certain Way, which will surely make you rich.

If you are engaged in some business, and feel that it is not the right one for you, do not wait until

you get into the right business before you begin to act.

Do not feel discouraged, or sit down and lament because you are misplaced. No one was ever so

misplaced that the right place could not be found, and no one ever became so involved in the

wrong business that the right business could not be found.

Hold the vision of yourself in the right business, with the purpose to get into it, and the faith that

you will get into it, and are getting into it; but ACT in your present business. Use your present

business as the means of getting a better one, and use your present environment as the means of

getting into a better one. Your vision of the right business, if held with faith and purpose, will

cause the Supreme to move the right business toward you; and your action, if performed in the

Certain Way, will cause you to move toward the business.

If you are an employee or wage earner, and feel that you must change places in order to get what

you want, do not “project” your thought into space and rely upon it to get you another job. It will

probably fail to do so.

Hold the vision of yourself in the job you want, while you ACT with faith and purpose on the job

you have, and you will certainly get the job you want.

Your vision and faith will set the creative force in motion to bring it toward you, and your action

will cause the forces in your own environment to move you toward the place you want. In

closing this chapter, we will add another statement to our syllabus:--

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made and which, in its original state,

permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance,

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

In order to do this, you must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; you must form a

clear mental picture of the things you want and hold this picture in your thoughts with the fixed

PURPOSE to get what you want and the unwavering FAITH that you will get what you want,

closing your mind to all that may tend to shake your purpose, dim your vision, or quench your

faith.

That you may receive what you want when it comes, you must act NOW upon the people and

things in your present environment.

Chapter 12 - Effective Action

YOU must use your thought as directed in previous chapters, and begin to do what you can do

where you are; and you must do ALL that you can do where you are.

You can advance only by being larger than your present place; and no one is larger than their

present place that leaves undone any of the work pertaining to that place.

The world is advanced only by those who more than fill their present places.

If no one quite filled their present place, you can see that there must be a going backward in

everything. Those who do not quite fill their present places are a dead weight upon society,

government, commerce, and industry; they must be carried along by others at a great expense.

The progress of the world is retarded only by those who do not fill the places they are holding;

they belong to a former age and a lower stage or plane of life, and their tendency is toward

degeneration. No society could advance if everyone was smaller than their place; social

evolution is guided by the law of physical and mental evolution. In the animal world, evolution is

caused by excess of life.

When an organism has more life than can be expressed in the functions of its own plane, it

develops the organs of a higher plane, and a new species is originated.

There never would have been new species had there not been organisms which more than filled

their places. The law is exactly the same for you; your getting rich depends upon your applying

this principle to your own affairs.

Every day is either a successful day or a day of failure; and it is the successful days which get

you what you want. If everyday is a failure, you can never get rich; while if every day is a

success, you cannot fail to get rich.

If there is something that may be done today, and you do not do it, you have failed in so far as

that thing is concerned; and the consequences may be more disastrous than you imagine.

You cannot foresee the results of even the most trivial act; you do not know the workings of all

the forces that have been set moving in your behalf. Much may be depending on your doing

some simple act; it may be the very thing which is to open the door of opportunity to very great

possibilities. You can never know all the combinations which Supreme Intelligence is making for

you in the world of things and of human affairs; your neglect or failure to do some small thing

may cause a long delay in getting what you want.

Do, every day, ALL that can be done that day.

There is, however, a limitation or qualification of the above that you must take into account.

You are not to overwork, nor to rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the greatest

possible number of things in the shortest possible time.

You are not to try to do tomorrow's work today, nor to do a week's work in a day.

It is really not the number of things you do, but the EFFECTIVENESS of each separate action

that counts.

Every act is, in itself, either a success or a failure.

Every act is, in itself, either effective or ineffective.

Every ineffective act is a failure, and if you spend your life in doing ineffective acts, your whole

life will be a failure.

The more things you do, the worse for you, if all your acts are ineffective ones.

On the other hand, every effective act is a success in itself, and if every act of your life is an

effective one, your whole life MUST be a success.

The cause of failure is doing too many things in an ineffective manner, and not doing enough

things in an effective manner.

You will see that it is a self-evident proposition that if you do not do any ineffective acts, and if

you do a sufficient number of effective acts, you will become rich. If now it is possible for you to

make each act an effective one, you see again that the getting of riches is reduced to an exact

science, like mathematics.

The matter turns then, on the question of whether you can make each separate act a success in

itself. And this you can certainly do.

You can make each act a success, because ALL Power is working with you; and ALL Power

cannot fail.

Power is at your service; and to make each act effective you have only to put power into it.

Every action is either strong or weak; and when every one is strong, you are acting in the Certain

Way which will make you rich.

Every act can be made strong and effective by holding your vision while you are doing it, and

putting the whole power of your FAITH and PURPOSE into it.

It is at this point that the people fail who separate mental power from personal action. They use

the power of mind in one place and at one time, and they act in another place and at another time.

So their acts are not successful in themselves; too many of them are ineffective. But if ALL

Power goes into every act, no matter how commonplace, every act will be a success in itself; and

as in the nature of things every success opens the way to other successes, your progress toward

what you want, and the progress of what you want toward you, will become increasingly rapid.

Remember that successful action is cumulative in its results. Since the desire for more life is

inherent in all things, when a person begins to move toward larger life more things attach

themselves to them, and the influence of their desire is multiplied.

Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in an effective manner.

In saying that you must hold your vision while you are doing each act, however trivial or

commonplace, I do not mean to say that it is necessary at all times to see the vision distinctly to

its smallest details. It should be the work of your leisure hours to use your imagination on the

details of your vision, and to contemplate them until they are firmly fixed upon memory. If you

wish speedy results, spend practically all your spare time in this practice.

By continuous contemplation you will get the picture of what you want, even to the smallest

details, so firmly fixed upon your mind, and so completely transferred to the mind of Formless

Substance, that in your working hours you need only to mentally refer to the picture to stimulate

your faith and purpose, and cause your best effort to be put forth. Contemplate your picture in

your leisure hours until your consciousness is so full of it that you can grasp it instantly. You will

become so enthused with its bright promises that the mere thought of it will call forth the

strongest energies of your whole being.

Let us again repeat our syllabus, and by slightly changing the closing statements bring it to the

point we have now reached.

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made and which in its original state,

permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance,

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

That you may receive what you want when it comes, you must act NOW upon the people and

things in your present environment. In order to do this, you must pass from the competitive to the

creative mind; you must form a clear mental picture of the things you want, and do, with faith

and purpose, all that can be done each day, doing each separate thing in an effective manner.

Chapter 13 - Getting into the Right Business

SUCCESS, in any particular business, depends for one thing upon your possessing in a well-

developed state the faculties required in that business.

Without good musical faculty no one can succeed as a teacher of music; without well-developed

mechanical faculties no one can achieve great success in any of the mechanical trades; without

tact and the commercial faculties no one can succeed in mercantile pursuits. But to possess in a

well-developed state the faculties required in your particular vocation does not insure getting

rich. There are musicians who have remarkable talent, and who yet remain poor; there are

blacksmiths, carpenters, and so on who have excellent mechanical ability, but who do not get

rich; and there are merchants with good faculties for dealing with people who nevertheless fail.

The different faculties are tools; it is essential to have good tools, but it is also essential that the

tools should be used in the Right Way. One person can take a sharp saw, a square, a good plane,

and so on, and build a handsome article of furniture; another person can take the same tools and

set to work to duplicate the article, but the production will be a botch. That person does not know

how to use good tools in a successful way.

The various faculties of your mind are the tools with which you must do the work which is to

make you rich; it will be easier for you to succeed if you get into a business for which you are

well equipped with mental tools.

Generally speaking, you will do best in that business which will use your strongest faculties; the

one for which you are naturally "best fitted." But there are limitations to this statement, also. No

one should regard the vocation one is in as being irrevocably fixed by the tendencies with which

that person was born.

You can get rich in ANY business, for if you have not the right talent for you can develop that

talent; it merely means that you will have to make your tools as you go along, instead of

confining yourself to the use of those with which you were born. It will be EASIER for you to

succeed in a vocation for which you already have the talents in a well-developed state; but you

CAN succeed in any vocation, for you can develop any rudimentary talent, and there is no talent

of which you have not at least the rudiment.

You will get rich most easily in point of effort, if you do that for which you are best fitted; but

you will get rich most satisfactorily if you do that which you WANT to do.

Doing what you want to do is life; and there is no real satisfaction in living if you are compelled

to be forever doing something which you do not like to do, and can never do what you want to

do. And it is certain that you can do what you want to do; the desire to do it is proof that you

have within you the power which can do it.

Desire is a manifestation of power.

The desire to play music is the power which can play music seeking expression and

development; the desire to invent mechanical devices is the mechanical talent seeking expression

and development.

Where there is no power, either developed or undeveloped to do a thing, there is never any desire

to do that thing; and where there is strong desire to do a thing, it is certain proof that the power to

do it is strong, and the only requirement is that it be developed and applied in the Right Way.

All else being equal, it is best to select the business for which you have the best developed talent;

but if you have a strong desire to engage in any particular line of work, you should select that

work as the ultimate end at which you aim.

You can do what you want to do, and it is your right and privilege to follow the business or

avocation which will be most congenial and pleasant.

You are not obliged to do what you do not like to do, and should not do it except as a means to

bring you to the doing of the thing you want to do.

If there are past mistakes whose consequences have placed you in an undesirable business or

environment, you may be obliged for some time to do what you do not like to do; but you can

make the doing of it pleasant by knowing that it is making it possible for you to come to the

doing of what you want to do.

If you feel that you are not in the right vocation, do not act too hastily in trying to get into

another one. The best way, generally, to change business or environment is by growth.

Do not be afraid to make a sudden and radical change if the opportunity is presented, and you

feel after careful consideration that it is the right opportunity; but never take sudden or radical

action when you are in doubt as to the wisdom of doing so.

There is never any hurry on the creative plane; and there is no lack of opportunity.

When you get out of the competitive mind you will understand that you never need to act hastily.

No one else is going to beat you to the thing you want to do; there is enough for all. If one space

is taken, another and a better one will be opened for you a little farther on; there is plenty of time.

When you are in doubt, wait. Fall back on the contemplation of your vision, and increase your

faith and purpose; and by all means, in times of doubt and indecision, cultivate gratitude.

A day or two spent in contemplating the vision of what you want, and in earnest thanksgiving

that you are getting it, will bring your mind into such close relationship with the Supreme that

you will make no mistake when you do act.

There is a mind which knows all there is to know; and if you have deep gratitude, you can come

into close unity with this mind by faith and the purpose to advance in life.

Mistakes come from acting hastily, or from acting in fear or doubt, or in forgetfulness of the

Right Motive, which is more life to all, and less to none.

As you go on in the Certain Way, opportunities will come to you in increasing number; and you

will need to be very steady in your faith and purpose, and to keep in close touch with the All

Mind by reverent gratitude.

Do all that you can do in a perfect manner every day, but do it without haste, worry, or fear. Go

as fast as you can, but never hurry.

Remember that in the moment you begin to hurry you cease to be a creator and become a

competitor; you drop back upon the old plane again.

Whenever you find yourself hurrying, call a halt; fix your attention on the mental image of the

thing you want, and begin to give thanks that you are getting it. The exercise of GRATITUDE

will never fail to strengthen your faith and renew your purpose.

Chapter 14 - The Impression of Increase

WHETHER you change your vocation or not, your actions for the present must be those

pertaining to the business in which you are now engaged.

You can get into the business you want by making constructive use of the business you are

already established in; by doing your daily work in a Certain Way.

And in so far as your business consists in dealing with other people, whether personally or by

letter, the key-thought of all your efforts must be to convey to their minds the impression of

increase.

Increase is what all men and all women are seeking; it is the urge of the Formless Intelligence

within them, seeking fuller expression.

The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the universe. All

human activities are based on the desire for increase; people are seeking more food, more

clothes, better shelter, more luxury, more beauty, more knowledge, more pleasure -- more life.

Every living thing is under this necessity for continuous advancement; where increase of life

ceases, dissolution and death set in at once.

People instinctively know this, and hence they are forever seeking more. This law of perpetual

increase is set forth by Jesus in the parable of the talents; only those who gain more retain any;

from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

The normal desire for increased wealth is not an evil or a reprehensible thing; it is simply the

desire for more abundant life; it is aspiration.

And because it is the deepest instinct of their natures, all men and women are attracted to the

person who can give them more of the means of life.

In following the Certain Way as described in the foregoing pages, you are getting continuous

increase for yourself, and you are giving it to all with whom you deal.

You are a creative center, from which increase is given off to all.

Be sure of this, and convey assurance of the fact to every man, woman, and child with whom you

come in contact. No matter how small the transaction, even if it be only the selling of a stick of

candy to a little child, put into it the thought of increase, and make sure that the customer is

impressed with the thought.

Convey the impression of advancement with everything you do, so that all people shall receive

the impression that you are an Advancing Person, and that you advance all who deal with you.

Even to the people whom you meet in a social way, without any thought of business, and to

whom you do not try to sell anything, give the thought of increase.

You can convey this impression by holding the unshakable faith that you, yourself, are in the

Way of Increase; and by letting this faith inspire, fill, and permeate every action.

Do everything that you do in the firm conviction that you are an advancing personality, and that

you are giving advancement to everybody.

Feel that you are getting rich and that in so doing you are making others rich, and conferring

benefits on all.

Do not boast or brag of your success, or talk about it unnecessarily; true faith is never boastful.

Wherever you find a boastful person, you find one who is secretly doubtful and afraid. Simply

feel the faith, and let it work out in every transaction; let every act and tone and look express the

quiet assurance that you are getting rich; that you are already rich. Words will not be necessary

to communicate this feeling to others; they will feel the sense of increase when in your presence,

and will be attracted to you again.

You must so impress others that they will feel that in associating with you they will get increase

for themselves. See that you give them a use value greater than the cash value you are taking

from them.

Take an honest pride in doing this, and let everybody know it; and you will have no lack of

customers. People will go where they are given increase; and the Supreme Power, which desires

increase in all, and which knows all, will move toward you men and women who have never

heard of you. Your business will increase rapidly, and you will be surprised at the unexpected

benefits which will come to you. You will be able from day to day to make larger combinations,

secure greater advantages, and to go on into a more congenial vocation if you desire to do so.

But in doing all this, you must never lose sight of your vision of what you want, or your faith and

purpose to get what you want.

Let me here give you another word of caution in regard to motives.

Beware of the insidious temptation to seek for power over other people.

Nothing is so pleasant to the unformed or partially developed mind as the exercise of power or

dominion over others. The desire to rule for selfish gratification has been the curse of the world.

For countless ages kings and lords have drenched the earth with blood in their battles to extend

their dominions; not to seek more life for all, but to get more power for themselves.

Today, the main motive in the business and industrial world is the same; people marshal their

armies of dollars, and lay waste the lives and hearts of millions in the same mad scramble for

power over others. Commercial kings, like political kings, are inspired by the lust for power.

Jesus saw in this desire for mastery the moving impulse of that evil world He sought to

overthrow. Read the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, and see how He pictures the lust of the

Pharisees to be called "Master," to sit in the high places, to domineer over others, and to lay

burdens on the backs of the less fortunate; and note how He compares this lust for dominion with

the brotherly seeking for the Common Good to which He calls His disciples.

Look out for the temptation to seek for authority, to become a "master," to be considered as one

who is above the common herd, to impress others by lavish display, and so on.

The mind that seeks for mastery over others is the competitive mind; and the competitive mind is

not the creative one. In order to master your environment and your destiny, it is not at all

necessary that you should rule over your fellow man and indeed, when you fall into the world's

struggle for the high places, you begin to be conquered by fate and environment, and your

getting rich becomes a matter of chance and speculation.

Beware of the competitive mind!! No better statement of the principle of creative action can be

formulated than the favorite declaration of the late "Golden Rule" Jones of Toledo: "What I want

for myself, I want for everybody."

Chapter 15 - The Advancing Person

WHAT I have said in the last chapter applies as well to the professional and the wage-earner as

to the person who is engaged in mercantile business.

No matter whether you are a physician, a teacher, or a member of the clergy, if you can give

increase of life to others and make them sensible of the fact, they will be attracted to you, and

you will get rich. The physician who holds the vision of self as a great and successful healer, and

who works toward the complete realization of that vision with faith and purpose, as described in

former chapters, will come into such close touch with the Source of Life and will be

phenomenally successful; patients will come in throngs.

No one has a greater opportunity to carry into effect the teaching of this book than the

practitioner of medicine; it does not matter to which of the various schools that person may

belong, for the principle of healing is common to all of them, and may be reached by all alike.

The Advancing Person in medicine, who holds to a clear mental image of success, and who

obeys the laws of faith, purpose, and gratitude, will cure every curable case that is undertaken, no

matter what remedies may be used.

In the field of religion, the world cries out for the clergy who can teach hearers the true science

of abundant life. One who masters the details of the science of getting rich, together with the

allied sciences of being well, of being great, and of winning love, and who teaches these details

from the pulpit, will never lack for a congregation. This is the gospel that the world needs; it will

give increase of life, and people will hear it gladly, and will give liberal support to the person

who brings it to them.

What is now needed is a demonstration of the science of life from the pulpit. We want preachers

who can not only tell us how, but who in their own persons will show us how. We need the

preacher who is rich, healthy, great, and beloved, to teach us how to attain to these things; and

when that preacher does a numerous and loyal following will be found.

The same is true of the teacher who can inspire the children with the faith and purpose of the

advancing life. A person will never be "out of a job." And teachers who have this faith and

purpose can give it to their pupils; they cannot help giving it to them if it is part of their own life

and practice.

What is true of the teacher, preacher, and physician is true of the lawyer, dentist, real estate

person, insurance agent--of everybody.

The combined mental and personal action I have described is infallible; it cannot fail. Every man

and woman who follows these instructions steadily, perseveringly, and to the letter, will get rich.

The law of the Increase of Life is as mathematically certain in its operation as the law of

gravitation; getting rich is an exact science.

Wage-earners will find this as true of their case as of any of the others mentioned. Do not feel

that you have no chance to get rich because you are working where there is no visible

opportunity for advancement, where wages are small and the cost of living high. Form your clear

mental vision of what you want, and begin to act with faith and purpose.

Do all the work you can do, every day, and do each piece of work in a perfectly successful

manner; put the power of success, and the purpose to get rich, into everything that you do.

But do not do this merely with the idea of currying favor with your employer, in the hope that

they, or those above you, will see your good work and advance you; it is not likely that they will

do so.

The individuals who are merely "good" workers, filling their place to the very best of their

ability, and satisfied with that, are valuable to their employer; and it is not in the employer's

interest to promote them; they are worth more where they are.

To secure advancement, something more is necessary than to be too large for your place.

Individuals who are certain to advance are those who are too big for their place, and who have a

clear concept of what they want to be; who know that they can become what they want to be and

who are determined to BE what they want to be.

Do not try to more than fill your present place with a view to pleasing your employer; do it with

the idea of advancing yourself. Hold the faith and purpose of increase during work hours, after

work hours, and before work hours. Hold it in such a way that every person who comes in

contact with you, whether manager, fellow worker, or social acquaintance, will feel the power of

purpose radiating from you; so that every one will get the sense of advancement and increase

from you. People will be attracted to you, and if there is no possibility for advancement in your

present job, you will very soon see an opportunity to take another job.

There is a Power which never fails to present opportunity to the Advancing Person who is

moving in obedience to law.

God cannot help helping you, if you act in a Certain Way; He must do so in order to help

Himself.

There is nothing in your circumstances or in the industrial situation that can keep you down. If

you cannot get rich working for the steel trust, you can get rich on a ten-acre farm; and if you

begin to move in the Certain Way, you will certainly escape from the "clutches" of the steel trust

and get on to the farm or wherever else you wish to be.

If a few thousands of its employees would enter upon the Certain Way, that business would soon

be in a bad plight; it would have to give its workers more opportunity, or go out of business.

Nobody has to work for a business that keeps people in so called hopeless conditions. A business

can only do so long as there are people who are too ignorant to know of the science of getting

rich or are too intellectually slothful to practice it.

Begin this way of thinking and acting, and your faith and purpose will make you quick to see any

opportunity to better your condition.

Such opportunities will speedily come, for the Supreme, working in all, and working for you,

will bring them before you.

Do not wait for an opportunity to be all that you want to be; when an opportunity to be more than

you are now is presented and you feel impelled toward it, take it. It will be the first step toward a

greater opportunity.

There is no such thing possible in this universe as a lack of opportunities for the person who is

living the advancing life.

It is inherent in the constitution of the cosmos that all things shall be for them and work together

for their good; and they must certainly get rich if they act and think in the Certain Way. So let

wage-earning men and women study this book with great care, and enter with confidence upon

the course of action it prescribes; it will not fail.

Chapter 16 - Some Cautions and Concluding Observations

MANY people will scoff at the idea that there is an exact science of getting rich; holding the

impression that the supply of wealth is limited, they will insist that social and governmental

institutions must be changed before any considerable number of people can acquire wealth.

But this is not true.

It is true that existing governments keep the masses in poverty, but this is because the masses do

not think and act in the Certain Way.

If the masses begin to move forward as suggested in this book, neither governments nor

industrial systems can check them; all systems must be modified to accommodate the forward

movement.

If the people have the Advancing Mind, have the Faith that they can become rich, and move

forward with the fixed purpose to become rich, nothing can possibly keep them in poverty.

Individuals may enter upon the Certain Way at any time, and under any government, and make

them selves rich; and when any considerable number of individuals do so under any government,

they will cause the system to be so modified as to open the way for others.

The more people who get rich on the competitive plane, the worse for others; the more who get

rich on the creative plane, the better for others.

The economic salvation of the masses can only be accomplished by getting a large number of

people to practice the scientific method set down in this book, and become rich. These will show

others the way, and inspire them with a desire for real life, with the faith that it can be attained,

and with the purpose to attain it.

For the present, however, it is enough to know that neither the government under which you live

nor the capitalistic or competitive system of industry can keep you from getting rich. When you

enter upon the creative plane of thought you will rise above all these things and become a citizen

of another kingdom.

But remember that your thought must be held upon the creative plane; you are never for an

instant to be betrayed into regarding the supply as limited, or into acting on the level of

competition.

Whenever you do fall into old ways of thought, correct yourself instantly; for when you are in

the competitive mind, you have lost the cooperation of the Supreme Power.

Do not spend any time in planning as to how you will meet possible emergencies in the future,

except as the necessary policies may affect your actions today. You are concerned with doing

today's work in a perfectly successful manner, and not with emergencies which may arise

tomorrow; you can attend to them as they come.

Do not concern yourself with questions as to how you shall surmount obstacles which may loom

upon your business horizon, unless you can see plainly that your course must be altered today in

order to avoid them.

No matter how tremendous an obstruction may appear at a distance, you will find that if you go

on in the Certain Way it will disappear as you approach it, or that a way over, through, or around

it will appear.

No possible combination of circumstances can defeat a man or woman who is proceeding to get

rich along strictly scientific lines. No man or woman who obeys the law can fail to get rich, any

more than one can multiply two by two and fail to get four.

Give no anxious thought to possible disasters, obstacles, panics, or unfavorable combinations of

circumstances; there will be time enough to meet such things when they present themselves

before you in the immediate present, and you will find that every difficulty carries with it the

wherewithal for its overcoming.

Guard your speech. Never speak of yourself, your affairs, or of anything else in a discouraged or

discouraging way.

Never admit the possibility of failure, or speak in a way that infers failure as a possibility.

Never speak of the times as being hard, or of business conditions as being doubtful. Times may

be hard and business doubtful for those who are on the competitive plane, but they can never be

so for you; you can create what you want, and you are above fear.

When others are having hard times and poor business, you will find your greatest opportunities.

Train yourself to think of and to look upon the world as something which is Becoming, which is

growing; and to regard seeming evil as being only that which is undeveloped. Always speak in

terms of advancement; to do otherwise is to deny your faith, and to deny your faith is to lose it.

Never allow yourself to feel disappointed. You may expect to have a certain thing at a certain

time, and not get it at that time; and this will appear to you like failure.

But if you hold to your faith you will find that the failure is only apparent.

Go on in the certain way, and if you do not receive that thing, you will receive something so

much better that you will see that the seeming failure was really a great success.

A student of this science had set his mind on making a certain business combination which

seemed to him at the time to be very desirable, and he worked for some weeks to bring it about.

When the crucial time came, the thing failed in a perfectly inexplicable way; it was as if some

unseen influence had been working secretly against him. He was not disappointed; on the

contrary, he thanked God that his desire had been overruled, and went steadily on with a grateful

mind. In a few weeks an opportunity so much better came his way that he would not have made

the first deal on any account; and he saw that a Mind which knew more than he knew had

prevented him from losing the greater good by entangling himself with the lesser.

That is the way every seeming failure will work out for you, if you keep your faith, hold to your

purpose, have gratitude, and do every day all that can be done that day, doing each separate act

in a successful manner.

When you make a failure, it is because you have not asked for enough; keep on, and a larger

thing than you were seeking will certainly come to you. Remember this.

You will not fail because you lack the necessary talent to do what you wish to do. If you go on as

I have directed you will develop all the talent that is necessary to the doing of your work.

It is not within the scope of this book to deal with the science of cultivating talent; but it is as

certain and simple as the process of getting rich.

However, do not hesitate or waver for fear that when you come to any certain place you will fail

for lack of ability; keep right on, and when you come to that place, the ability will be furnished

to you. The same source of ability which enabled the untaught Lincoln to do the greatest work in

government ever accomplished by a single person is open to you; you may draw upon all the

mind there is for wisdom to use in meeting the responsibilities which are laid upon you. Go on in

full faith.

Study this book. Make it your constant companion until you have mastered all the ideas

contained in it. While you are getting firmly established in this faith, you will do well to give up

most recreations and pleasures; and to stay away from places where ideas conflicting with these

are advanced in lectures or sermons. Do not read pessimistic or conflicting literature, or get into

arguments upon the matter. Spend most of your leisure time in contemplating your vision, and in

cultivating gratitude, and in reading this book. It contains all you need to know of the science of

getting rich; and you will find all the essentials summed up in the following chapter.

Chapter 17 - Summary of the Science of Getting Rich

THERE is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state,

permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance

can cause the thing you think about to be created.

In order to do this, you must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise you

cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence, which is always creative and never

competitive in spirit.

A person may come into full harmony with the Formless Substance by entertaining a lively and

sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows. Gratitude unifies a person’s mind with the

Intelligent Substance, so that a person's thoughts are received by the Formless. A person can

remain upon the creative plane only by uniting with the Formless Intelligence through a deep and

continuous feeling of gratitude.

You must form a clear and definite mental image of the things you wish to have, to do, or to

become; and you must hold this mental image in your thoughts, while being deeply grateful to

the Supreme Power that all your desires are granted to you. If you wish to get rich, you must

spend your leisure hours in contemplating your Vision, and in earnest thanksgiving that the

reality is being given to you. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of frequent

contemplation of the mental image, coupled with unwavering faith and devout gratitude. This is

the process by which the impression is given to the Formless, and the creative forces set in

motion.

The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the

industrial and social order. All that is included in your mental image will surely be brought to

you if you follow the instructions given above, and if your faith does not waver. What you want

will come to you through the ways of established trade and commerce.

In order to receive your own when it shall come to you, you must be active; and this activity can

only consist in more than filling your present place. You must keep in mind the Purpose to get

rich through the realization of your mental image. And you must do every day all that can be

done that day, taking care to do each act in a successful manner. You must give to every person a

use value in excess of the cash value you receive, so that each transaction makes for more life;

and you must so hold the Advancing Thought that the impression of increase will be

communicated to all with whom you come in contact.

The men and women who practice the foregoing instructions will certainly get rich; and the

riches they receive will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of

their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.

The End