Amazon.com description: Product Description: Eight Pillars of Prosperity is one of James Allen's last books, first published in 1911. The British born author was a philosophical writer who paved the way for the self help movement with his spiritual and inspirational writings. Eight Pillars of Prosperity guides the reader through the eight qualities a man must strive for in order to achieve true prosperity. The book contains beautiful hand drawn illustrations to enhance this timeless classic in the most exquisite way. Foreword by James Allen: It is popularly supposed that a greater prosperity for individuals or nations can only come through a political and social reconstruction. This cannot be true apart from the practice of the moral virtues in the individuals that comprise a nation. Better laws and social conditions will always follow a higher realisation of morality among the individuals of a community, but no legal enactment can give prosperity to, nay it cannot prevent the ruin of, a man or a nation that has become lax and decadent in the pursuit and practice of virtue. The moral virtues are the foundation and support of prosperity as they are the soul of greatness. They endure for ever, and all the works of man which endure are built upon them. Without them there is neither strength, stability, nor substantial reality, but only ephemeral dreams. To find moral principles is to have found prosperity, greatness, truth, and is therefore to be strong, valiant, joyful and free.