My fascination with Rhonda Byrne recently led me to Wallace D. Wattles, a man I knew literally nothing about until today.
Wattles, who lived from 1860 to 1911, is considered a somewhat obscure New Thought writer. His most prominent work is The Science of Getting Rich, a book I have just started exploring.
I can sense that every sentence was crafted with care, because more often than not they are rich with meaning and are also thought-provoking.
There is considerable backlash against the self-help movement, of which Wattles could be said to be a part. And despite the fact that his book is about getting rich, he doesn’t shy away from referencing concepts like one’s “soul” and “faith”.
Here’s a quote in particular that caught my attention:
No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money: for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with. – Wallace D. Wattles
This would suggest that money is an important part of one’s experience of truth.
Do you think Wattles was saying that soul development is not possible apart from the means to buy “many things to use”?
Was he suggesting that there is a connection between one’s personal wealth and spirituality?
Or was he merely saying that money affords you to buy things that allow you to grow yourself – your talent, and by extension, your “soul”?
