The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier [1926]

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Contents    Start Reading    Page Index   

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What makes a New Thought classic? Obviously most of these books are delivering the exact same message. Collier here demonstrates a combination of factors which seems to win over readers: a folksy--but not cornball--style, lots of inspirational quotes, particularly from the Bible, and, most of all, constant repetition of the theme that you, too, can tap the power of the Infinite, and get healthy and rich just by instructing your unconscious mind to do so.

The author, Robert Collier was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1885, and died in 1950. He was the nephew of Peter Fenelon Collier, founder of Collier's Weekly, the famous progressive muckraking magazine, which notably published Upton Sinclair's meat-packing expose. Robert Collier was a prolific author, and his works continue to be popular to this day with New Thought readers. The Secret of the Ages sold over 300,000 copies during his life.

I was fortunate to acquire a first edition of this book, published in seven slim volumes in 1926, and the section breakdown and pagination of this etext reflects this. However, the page numbering across the volumes is continuous, so this is essentially the equivalent of a 600 page book (although the pages are small, so a normal sized equivalent might have about 400 pages). Note that although the title pages state that this was originally copyrighted in 1925 under the title "The Book of Life," neither copyright nor online library records show any trace of a work by this name: this was copyrighted under the current title in 1926 and never renewed.

A check of the copyright records indicated that although this was registered with the US Copyright office, the copyright was not renewed, and hence it is in the public domain in the US. However, it is probably not in the public domain in other countries, since Collier died in 1950, and most countries use the date of death of the author plus 70.

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Volume One

Title Page
Contents
Foreword
I. The World's Greatest Discovery
II. The Genie-of-Your-Mind
Index

Volume Two

Title Page
Contents
III. The Primal Cause
IV. Desire—The First Law of Gain

Volume Three

Title Page
Contents
V. Aladdin & Company
VI. See Yourself Doing It
VII. “As A Man Thinketh”
VIII. The Law of Supply

Volume Four

Title Page
Contents
IX. The Formula of Success
X. “This Freedom”
XI. The Law of Attraction
XII. The Three Requisites
XIII. That Old Witch—Bad Luck

Volume Five

Title Page
Contents
XIV. Your Needs Are Met
XV. The Master of Your Fate
XVI. Unappropriated Millions
XVII. The Secret of Power
XVIII. This One Thing I Do

Volume Six

Title Page
Contents
XIX. The Master Mind
XX. What Do You Lack?
XXI. The Sculptor and the Clay
XXII. Why Grow Old?

Volume Seven

Title Page
Contents
XXIII. The Medicine Delusion
XXIV. The Gift of the Magi
Index of Scriptural References and Quotations