Book excerpt: In "Eight Pillars of Prosperity," James Allen reveals exact qualities we must meditate upon in order to achieve lasting success. Prosperity rests on eight pillars: Energy, Economy, Integrity, System, Sympathy, Sincerity, Impartiality, and Self-reliance. "A business built up on the faultless practice of all these principles," Allen writes, "would be so firm and enduring as to be invincible. Nothing could injure it; nothing could undermine its prosperity, nothing could interrupt its success." This is a "Book of Virtues" for adults, distilling the wisdom of the ages in one compact volume. 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.