The Goal of Life, by Hiram Butler, [1908], at sacred-texts.com

p. vii

To The Reader.

He that thinks to know the contents of this book by glancing through it, will know nothing about it.

To the literary critic we would say that there has been no effort toward literary excellence, but the effort has been to obtain clearness of thought as far as possible with condensation, for there has been condensed in this volume thought enough to make many similar volumes . Because of this fact, there are many instances where it has been necessary to repeat the thought in order to keep the central idea before the mind.

The great Master said, "He that is of God heareth the words of God." So say we, they that are of God will perceive in this volume truth of great importance; they that are not of God, but are reading purely with the reason, will find much to criticize, and will even throw aside the book with the feeling that it is worthless; for the things that belong to the higher consciousness, to the real world, are foolishness to those that live only in the material world.

Therefore we commit this work into the hands of the public and to the mind of the Spirit, feeling assured that it will do the work for which it is designed.