The Heavenly Life (eBook)
As always, his advice is both spiritual and practical. His words are as valuable today as when they were first written, and provide a welcome balm to uneasy souls in an uncertain world. "THE secret of life, of abundant life, with its strength, its felicity, and its unbroken peace is to find the Divine Centre within oneself, and to live in and from that, instead of in that outer circumference of disturbances—the clamours, cravings, and argumentation which make up the animal and intellectual man. These selfish elements constitute the mere husks of life, and must be thrown away by him who would penetrate to the Central Heart of things—to Life itself." About the Author: James Allen was born in Leicester, England in 1864. After leaving school at the age of fifteen to support his family, Allen worked, read, and carefully observed the world around him. It was not until he was thirty-eight that he wrote From Poverty to Power, one of the first motivational books. His next book, As a Man Thinketh, established his reputation as an inspirational writer. Other books on spirituality included The Eight Pillars of Wisdom and From Passion to Peace. Although his writing career lasted for only ten years, until his death in 1912, Allen produced twenty titles that influenced millions in the same manners as the words of Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale.
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About the Author
James Allen (1864–1912) was an influential British philosophical writer, poet, and a recognized pioneer of the modern self-help and motivational movement. Born on November 28, 1864, in Leicester, England, Allen’s early life was marked by hardship that profoundly shaped his philosophical outlook and eventual career. His working-class background meant his formal education was cut short when his father, a factory knitter, traveled to America in 1879 to find work and was tragically robbed and murdered shortly after arrival. At just fifteen, Allen was forced to leave school to support his family, working in several British manufacturing firms, eventually rising to the position of a private secretary.
Despite the demands of work, Allen maintained a deep interest in literature, philosophy, and spirituality. This period of intellectual self-discipline led him away from his early religious background toward a more generalized spiritual and contemplative path, heavily influenced by thinkers like Leo Tolstoy and Buddhist philosophy, particularly ‘The Light of Asia’. He married Lily Louisa Oram in 1895, and by 1898, he had begun writing for the spiritual magazine ‘The Herald of the Golden Age’.
Allen's creative period was brief but immensely productive. In 1901, he published his first book, ‘From Poverty to Power’. By 1902, inspired to pursue a life of simple living and writing, Allen retired from his secretarial work. He moved with his wife and daughter, Nora, to a small, secluded cottage in Ilfracombe, Devon, where he spent the remaining nine years of his life writing and editing his own spiritual magazine, ‘The Light of Reason’ (later retitled The Epoch).
His most famous and enduring work, the philosophical essay ‘As a Man Thinketh’, was published in 1903. Loosely based on a passage from the biblical Book of Proverbs ("As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he"), the concise volume articulated Allen's core philosophy: that a person’s thoughts directly shape their character, destiny, and life circumstances. He emphasized that "Mind is the Master-power that moulds and makes," advocating for personal responsibility and the transformative potential of disciplined, noble thought. Though he never achieved great fame or wealth during his lifetime, As a Man Thinketh became a cornerstone of inspirational literature, influencing a "who's who" of later self-help authors like Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie. Allen produced nineteen works in total, including The Path of Prosperity and The Mastery of Destiny, before his sudden death on January 24, 1912, at the age of 47. His wife, Lily L. Allen, continued his legacy by publishing his posthumous manuscripts and editing their magazine.