15

THE CONQUEST OF POVERTY

HELEN WILMANS
(1899)

Dedication

To working men and women everywhere, the fruitage of whose toil is small; to those who would, but cannot toil because refused; to you now near the top of that great ladder climbed by brawn, who long to use your brain; to you now toiling in the mental world, who would build better than you have; to all, who long for greater wealth of purse and power and self, I dedicate this book.

Remember as you read it, that you, sir, are a man; you, madam, are a woman. Conditions cannot be your master when you know yourselves. The buds of wondrous promise are within us all.

Man! Woman! These are words of mighty power indeed when understood. Each human today is the temple of its god within. Turn on the light of selfhood as you read this book and let the light be strong. Discover self! If search be short or long, I say, discover self! Then, know thyself, and then record a solemn vow and let it be, I can—I will—I dare—I do

 

THE AUTHOR

Preface

Poverty is so widespread, its curses are so bitter and its effects so far reaching, that anything at all practical as a remedial agency can but be gladly welcomed.

The life story of successful people in the form of biography or autobiography always has an influence more or less healthful, but the real philosophy of success has been rarely if ever touched upon in any writings of this character. The laws which underlie and govern success have been unconsciously practiced by many, and those who have recorded the histories of such lives in the form of biographies or autobiographies nearly always relate the success without even an attempt at a discovery of the real secret of the success attained. Effect is treated rather than cause.

Another class of literature on success and how to attain it, how to get rich, etc., has been written by “literary” people who write for publishers at so much per page, and while theoretical essays of much seeming beauty have been written in this way, they cannot be said to possess the merit of truth born of experience. The lives of the authors are not, in such cases, in harmony with what is written. From the standpoint of success their lives are not demonstrations of what they seek to teach. While such authors often write much that sounds plausible, their writings nearly always contain much advice that is positively detrimental to the development of courageous selfhood, the real key to all power.

There are thousands to-day who know personally the author of this book. Those who do, know that words could hardly be found to over-estimate the grandeur of her womanhood. She stands a giant oak in the forest of the worlds great women. While master of many subjects, perhaps upon no other is she better capable of speaking than upon the subject of this work. From poverty she has evolved to a condition of opulence, commanding to-day an income aggregating tens of thousands of dollars annually. From a position of shrinking self-denial she has risen to a plane of powerful selfhood, and through its power has conquered all undesirable environments; not poverty alone, but disease. At a time of life counted by the world as old age, instead of getting ready to die she is preparing to live.

Her life story therefore is a significant lesson to all who are struggling with unfavorable conditions, even were it told alone and with no attempt to disclose the laws which governed her success.

This little book, while not purporting to be an autobiography, still marks the mile posts here and there, where courage guided her away from the paths of indecision out into the highway of self trust, as she gradually unfolded for herself and for the world the great principles of truth which she has so ably formulated into the school now known throughout the world as Mental Science, one of the greatest, indeed the greatest, of all contributions to truth in the nineteenth century.

Marking as it does a general outline of her experience thus far, and illuminated as it is by the light of her philosophy, its influence cannot fail to accomplish great good. The reader will find that cause as well as effect is treated, and he can read it with satisfaction born of the knowledge that each page was lighted by the lamp of experience as the author wrote. We feel, therefore, that in this book we are offering to the world a temple of truth. Its foundation is the bed-rock of experience. It is lighted by a life-giving philosophy, the practicability of the teachings of which is a matter of common demonstration, not alone by Mrs. Wilmans, but by many of her students.

Surely, then, this temple is not builded on the sands of theory, and though its spires reach into the clouds of the ideal, the highest points have habitable chambers. The ideal, to those who will read and heed, can be made the real, and though the storms of ignorant criticism should beat upon this house of the higher Law, it will not fall.

 

THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION

Introduction

In writing this book, while I shall not make it an autobiography, I shall prove what I say as I go along by the test of personal experience, than which there is no better guide or teacher.

I shall expound as best I can the laws of individual financial success in the light of the philosophy of mind.

While reading it I request each reader to note:

First, the steady but slow unfoldment of selfhood, as I gradually recognized more and more of its powers after catching the first faint glimpses, and began unconsciously to hinder less and less the Law of Aspiration.

Second, I ask each to note how much more rapid has been my advancement since I arrived at the plane of conscious growth, where I came to an understanding of its laws.

Again, it will be of profit to observe that I am not indebted to environment or so-called “special gifts.”

What I have accomplished thus far has been in obedience to the working of natural laws which can and will operate in any human organism that will tear down the embankments of fear which obstruct the river of growth, and open the flood gates of courage and self-trust, thus permitting natural law to take its course. What I am, natural law has made me, aided only by self recognition, and while I know the scope of my growth and power to be boundless, what I claim for myself I claim for each individual of the race. I do not forget that in their ignorance of, not the equality, but the unity of the race, selfish men have foolishly secured the enactment of statutory laws which help to effectually hold the masses of the people in chains; but I assert that any individual may, by himself, rise above his environments, and that as he rises by virtue of his knowledge of the higher Law he helps to make clearer the mental atmosphere, himself comes into a clear and yet clearer recognition of his true relations to society and his fellow men and thereby helps forward the coming of the time when all men shall know for a truth, that, while equality in all things is neither possible nor desirable, the unity of all is at all times absolute, and that to do to others as we would have them do to us is the practical, and the only practical road to such financial success as brings with it the happiness for which we are all seeking.