the book is later issued as a fascimile edition with ISBN 9781161572865.

Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful as yet, do as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful; he cuts away here, he smooths there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until he has shown a beautiful face upon the statue. So do you also; cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is shadowed, labour to make all glow with beauty, and do not cease chiselling your statue until there shall shine out on you the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the final goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.
Plotinus on the Beautiful (Translated by Stephen MacKenna)

James Ingall Wedgwood was born in London in 1883 and died in Farnham in 1951. He was a member of the well-known Wedgwood family that has for some generations distinguished itself in art, in science, in industry and in other branches of public service. When a young man he studied church music and organ construction and later received the degree of Docteur (Sciences) de l'Universite de Paris for a textbook on this subject which is still used. In 1904, deeply influenced by a lecture of Dr. Besant's, he joined the Theosophical Society, becoming General Secretary of the English Section in 1911. In 1916 he was consecrated as the first Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, a movement devoted to liberalizing Christian thought, which he did much to foster.

about the reprint: The reprint of his small but invaluable book in meditation had been planned before his death. Those who are responsible know that his many friends would not wish it to appear at this moment without some small recognition of the debt owed to him by students and aspirants throughout the world. Its publication is only one of the many tributes that will continue to be paid to him, in appreciation of what he has given not only to those who knew him, but to all mankind.