The Royal Path of Life; Or, Aims and Aids to Success and Happiness

by Thomas Louis Haines, Levi Walter Yaggy

The subject matter of this book, success and happiness, has been the consideration of every eminent pen, from the days of Solomon to the present. To say anything strictly new would be impossible; nor would be presume that the authors' knowledge and experience would be as valuable as the maxims of the wise and sublime truths which have become a part of the standard literature. The best that anyone can expect to do is to recombine the experiences of the past, and compile such thoughts and extracts as have been chimed in with the testimony of earnest and aspiring minds and offer them in a novel and fascinating form.

321 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1878

Reviews

[Traci · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely find for me when I was antique-ing. It is Victorian in its morality and sentiment, but so many of its assertions would be welcome in our decadent age.

[Superb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Master piece. All families should have this book in there home!

[JJ | Casa de Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone commented that all families should own this book. Yes, yes and yes.

[Forbes · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only the lessons in this book were read around the family table by all! In our modern age of superficiality, this book speaks sobriety and sanity. I often open it to peruse its wise pages and every time I do, I feel I have opened a treasure trove that has, through some genius of providence, fallen unsuspectingly into my hands. I look forward to reading it to my children, and hope they read it to theirs.

[Howard Frisk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating glimpse into the values and norms of the 1880's, as it was published in 1881. Some things have changed dramatically while are pretty much the same. In the section on Home Amusements the author states:

"I have been told by men, who had passed unharmed through the temptations of youth, that they owed their escape from many dangers to the intimate companionship of affectionate and pure-minded sisters. They have been saved from a hazardous meeting with idle company by some home engagement, of which their sisters were the charm."

The book has several engravings which give it a real historical and antique feel. It's thought provoking to hold in your hands a book that is 142 years old and wonder about the people that held it in their hands and read it through its history.

I have the leather-bound edition which is in remarkably good condition.

[OvercommuniKate · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be bad, but not immediately get hit with 'women have weaker intellects than men'. I'm glad the Internet Archive has saved this for when historians need to remind themselves of the hellscape that is the white American patriarchy.

[Cari Manderino · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read Meditations, I suggest this book. Yes, there were parts that went in one eye and out the other, and you have to mentally get over the sexism of the time, but it's not a bad as most from this age. The illustrations are beautiful. I was finding time to read it twice a day :)

[Kaetlyn Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure of abandoned wisdom! Very quotable and I commonplaced a lot of it.