A Word from John

“What I want for myself, I want for everybody.”
— Golden Rule Jones

The Science of Getting Rich

 
If there was ever a book to which the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover (title)” applied, this is it.

I hope the online version of this book becomes as big a blessing in your life as it has been in mine.

There couldn’t be another book with a title that is more misleading than this one—and I say that with all respect. If you looked at the title and thought, “Oh, another get-rich-quick scam” or “How shallow” or “Geez, that sounds materialistic; I thought this was supposed to be a spiritual book,” then you’re not alone.

This book is so much more than that . . .

Out of gratitude for all the healing that has happened in my life, a large part of which came from reading books such as this, I am providing this classic book to everyone online in the spirit of a man long forgotten, “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo, who is quoted above.

In the spring of 2010, a dear friend of mine studied Rhonda Byrne’s book & movie called The Secret. When she surfed the corresponding site, she came upon the reference to the book that began Rhonda on her journey. It is The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. My friend found an online version of it as a PDF file. With an excitement I had not seen in her in a long time, she shared the book with me.

After a couple of discussions, I searched the Internet myself. I eventually found a PDF version of the book that I downloaded, printed out, and studied.

I noticed that this PDF has made the rounds on the Internet. It has been formatted slightly differently at each site. Some versions break up the paragraphs differently. Essentially, the text is the same. Several sites offer this book for free while others offer to send you a printed version for a fee.

Seeing as how this book does not fall under copyright law (it was published before 1923 and it is out of print), it is essentially free to all. Therefore, dear reader, I decided to clean up the text and share it with everyone—including you.

On the 100th anniversary of its publication (1910), I am providing a modern version of the original text. Because Mr. Wattles wrote the book a century ago, his language is archaic and sometimes a little more difficult to understand.

Because I have yet to lay my hands on an actual, printed copy of the 1910 publication, I cannot say with all certainty that the PDFs I have downloaded from other sites contain the actual text written by Wallace Wattles.

The other PDFs and web pages that I found on the Internet all had the exact same mistakes. This leads me to believe one person scanned a copy of Mr. Wattles’ book, and that the scanned pages were not totally accurate, and that the person did not proofread their handiwork. I seriously doubt those mistakes were in the original printed book; but, again, I cannot say for sure until I find one.

So, when I produced this version, I incorporated:

• Corrections to blatant errors.
• Modern words or phrases to replace archaic grammar that is hard to understand, without losing Mr. Wattles’ intention or meaning.
• Bullet points to make key ideas stand out, because the information was “buried” in a large paragraph.
• Definitions of words that may be unfamiliar.
• Links that explain references that may be unfamiliar.
• Sections and section titles, to help you see the logical progression of the text.

Simply put, I tried to make this book a little easier to read.

Happy reading,
John

Be well.   Be positive.   Be grateful.
Get rich.   Share your knowledge with others.   Help your fellow man.