Light of Reason, The.
Devoted to: The Expounding of the Laws of Being and the Higher Life / Official Organ of The Brotherhood or School of Virtue.
1902--1910 Monthly
Ilfracombe, England.
Publisher: Savoy Publishing Company.
Editor: James Allen.
Succeeded by: Incorporated in The Epoch, with which is Incorporated the Light of Reason -->The Epoch and Light of Reason, 1910-1934, edited by Allen and his wife, Lily; The Herald of the New World, in which is incorporated The Epoch, 1935
Corporate author: Official organ of The Brotherhood or School of Virtue
1/1, January 1902-1910.
4s. / $1.00 a year, 48 pp.

Allen (1864-1912) was the scion of a prominent and wealthy family that fell upon hard times in his teenage years, allowing him to work his way up From Poverty to Power (1901, the name of his first book) as a clerk in an office. His path to the editor of this journal began with his reading of Emerson and his life was transformed in the late 1880s when he came across Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia: "I had become a different man. A curtain seemed to have rolled back from the face of the Universe, and I saw the causes and meaning of things which had hitherto been dark mysteries. There was a revelation which was almost blending in its brilliance and suddenness, an exaltation which alarmed me while it transported me into a felicitous insight. The vision quickly faded, but its influence remained, the memory of it saving me in many an hour of darkness and temptation, until that calmer time of meditation and knowledge, ten years later, when it returned never again to fade from the mind." Quoted in Murdo S. Carrurhers, "James Allen: A Prophet of Meditation," Herald of the Star, 1916. The experience made him into one of the leading inspirational, uplift and self-improvement teachers in Britain -- of the softer variety of New Thought: Lucy Mallory, editor of World's Advance Thought, said of him that "everything that emanates from his pen is full of sweetness and light."

"I looked upon the world, and saw that it was shadowed by sorrow and scorched by the fierce fires of suffering-. I looked for the cause, but could not find it until I looked within, and there found both the cause and the self-made nature of the cause. I looked again, deeper, and found the remedy I found one Law, the Law of Love; one Life, the Life of adjustment to that Law; one Truth, the Truth of a conquered mind and a quiet and obedient heart. And I dreamed of writing a book which should help men and women, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, worldly or unworldly, to find within themselves the source of all success, all happiness, all accomplishment, all truth: And the dream remained with me, and at last became substantial, and now I send it forth into the world on its mission of healing and blessedness, knowing that it cannot fail to reach the homes and hearts of those who are waiting and ready to receive it."

Appropriately, the journal had contributions by Mallory, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and others of similar inclination. Allen was a prolific author (Byways of Blessedness, As a Man Thinketh, Through the Gate of Good, and similar offerings) and contributor to New Thought magazines like World's Advance Thought, Eltka, Herald of the Cross, etc. The income from these endeavors allowed him to purchase Bryngoleu, an estate near Ilfracombe, to which he welcomed paying guests who sought his wisdom and fresh air (reduced terms from October 1st to June 1st). In November 1905, after experimenting with correspondence groups and "Light of Reason Gatherings," he established The Brotherhood, or School of Virtue, which taught "the renunciation of self for the good of the world, and the necessarily its corollary, the practice of divine love towards all creatures and beings. The rules of the Brotherhood are those principles of truth which the seekers after righteousness in all ages have adopted. Religions change from age to age, but the principles of divine virtue are eternally the same, and these principles are embodied in the rules of the Brotherhood." Members of the Brotherhood, as well as Associate-Members and Supporters were entitled to keep "The Book of Discipline" which was sent for a penny stamp to those seeking admittance to the Brotherhood and had to be returned if the reader chose not to join. It set out the conditions of the group and "embodied the Precepts, Rules, and Discipline of the Order."

In June 1910, the journal was incorporated in The Epoch, published edited by Allen and his wife, Lily, who carried it on after his death in 1912. The journal carried reviews of books and magazines and extensive advertisements for Allen's works and the works of prominent (mostly American) New Thought authors. Advertised in The Mountain Pine and in The Swastika, 1907, 1908 and 1909. BL; BNF.

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