Manly was born in Canada, moved to the U.S.,
and gained entrance to the greatest museums and libraries around the world. During his travels he collected out of print books,
ancient obscure texts and artifacts related to all the worlds religions.
He is widely remembered for his book, The
Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy,
which he published at the age of 25, in 1928, the year of the great stock market crash.
In 1938 he founded the Philosophical Research Society
in Los Angeles, CA. It is a nonprofit with a library filled with approximately 30,000 rare and dear volumes that he collected.
Dr. Hall wrote more than 200 books and gave more
than 8000 lectures in the Society's auditorium that od next to the library and his office. (Can you imagine doing
all that without the benefit of a computer?)
PRS also stands for philosophy,
religion, and science. He sought to integrate the the three.
Manly was a peace teacher. "A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world."
He described the worlds religions
as the many colors of sincere believing.
He reminded us of an ancient Chinese saying.
"When the student is ready, the teacher is there."
* * *
One of Manly's favorites: "Tears
wash away the blindness of the mind so that the soul can see the real." This one has a very personal meaning for me as the
student of one of Manly's earliest protégés and former PRS librarian, Arthur Louis Joquel, II.
