I don’t really wish to go back to the days of writing “real” letters which arrive in the post box—I like the immediacy of email way too much—but I love reading old letters. They take me back to a slower, more elegant, less immediate, and more anticipatory time. In this new, old book, the salutations are lovely. Dear Lover of Souls, Dear Friend. One feels that Frances Larimer Warner is indeed writing to friends. As is said in Gaelic, anam cara—soul friends.

Mrs. Warner has done her own spiritual work, and, as a result

I love what she writes about money. “Money is not wealth, but the symbol only of inexhaustible wealth.” About the Bible: “We are taught nothing more clearly in the bible than Oneness.” To Mrs. Warner, the getting of money is simple. We are to sit in Oneness and give thanks for our infinite supply. The getting of health is simple. We are to sit in Oneness and give thanks for our vibrant health. The getting of “every form of attainment,” as is cited in her subtitle, is simple.

Oneness + Thanks = Manifestation

The neatest thing is that the reader gets to share some of her process of realization. As she goes through more and more of her own learning, her letters become richer with understanding, and therefore, meaning.

As the universe would have it, I discovered quite inadvertently that there is a second volume of her letters, originally published in 1909. This one is not in print. The book detective in me ever at the ready, I went to

I’m looking forward to the hotter, slower days of summer when I can sit quietly in the Oneness and read more of her gentle, instructive letters.