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 s A Man Thinketh 
 
 JAMES ALLEN 
 
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 * AS A MAN 
 THINKETH 
 
 BY JAMES ALLEN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "FROM PASSION TO PEACE' 
 
 AUTHORIZED EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
 
 PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 
 THOUGHT AND CHARACTER 7 
 
 EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES . . 11 
 
 EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE 
 
 BODY 26 
 
 THOUGHT AND PURPOSE 30 
 
 THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT . . 34 
 
 VISIONS AND IDEALS 39 
 
 SERENITY . 45 
 
 2056170
 
 THIS little volume (the result of meditation 
 and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive 
 treatise on the much-written-upon subject of 
 the power of thought. It is suggestive rather 
 than explanatory, its object being to stimulate 
 men and women to the discovery and percep- 
 tion of the truth that 
 
 "They themselves are makers of themselves" 
 
 by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and 
 encourage; that mind is the master- weaver, both 
 of the inner garment of character and the outer 
 garment of circumstance, and that, as they may 
 have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they 
 may now weave in enlightenment and happiness. 
 
 JAMES ALLEN 
 Broad ParJ^ Avenue, 
 lljracombe, 
 England.
 
 As a Man Thinketh 
 
 THOUQHT 
 
 THE APHORISM, "As a man thinketh in his 
 heart so is he," not only embraces the whole of 
 a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to 
 reach out to every condition and circumstance 
 of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, 
 his character being the complete sum of all his 
 thoughts. 
 
 As the plant springs from, and could not be 
 without, the seed, so every act of a man springs 
 from the hidden seeds of thought, and could 
 not have appeared without them. This applies 
 equally to those acts called "spontaneous" and 
 "unpremeditated" as to those which are delib- 
 erately executed. 
 
 Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and 
 suffering are its fruits; thus does a man gar- 
 ner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own 
 husbandry. 
 
 [7]
 
 "Thought in the mind hath made us. What we are 
 By thought was wrought and built. If a man's 
 
 mind 
 
 Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes 
 The wheel the ox behind. . . . 
 
 . . If one endure 
 
 In purity of thought, joy follows him 
 As his own shadow sure." 
 
 Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by 
 artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and 
 undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as 
 in the world of visible and material things. A 
 noble and Godlike character is not a thing of 
 favour or chance, but is the natural result of con- 
 tinued effort in right thinking, the effect of long- 
 cherished association with Godlike thoughts. 
 An ignoble and bestial character, by the same 
 process, is the result of the continued harbour- 
 ing of grovelling thoughts. 
 
 Man is made or unmade by himself; in the 
 armoury of thought he forges the weapons by 
 wbich he destroys himself; he also fashions the 
 tools with which he builds for himself heavenly 
 mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the 
 right choice and true application of thought, 
 man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the 
 abuse and wrong application of thought, he de- 
 
 [*]
 
 scends below the level of the beast. Between 
 these two extremes are all the grades of char- 
 acter, and man is their maker and master. 
 
 Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the 
 soul which have been restored and brought to 
 light in this age, none is more gladdening or 
 fruitful of divine promise and confidence than 
 this that man is the master of thought, the 
 moulder of character, and the maker and shaper 
 of condition, environment, and destiny. 
 
 As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, 
 and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds 
 the key to every situation, and contains within 
 himself that transforming and regenerative 
 agency by which he may make himself what 
 he wills. 
 
 Man is always the master, even in his weak- 
 est and most abandoned state; but in his 
 weakness and degradation he is the foolish mas- 
 ter who misgoverns his "household." When 
 he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to 
 search diligently for the Law upon which his 
 being is established, he then becomes the wise 
 master, directing his energies with intelligence, 
 and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. 
 Such is the conscious master, and man can only 
 thus become by discovering within himself the 
 
 [9]
 
 JMAK 
 
 laws of thought; which discovery is totally a 
 matter of application, self-analysis, and expe- 
 rience. 
 
 Only by much searching and mining are gold 
 and diamonds obtained, and man can find every 
 truth connected with his being if he will dig deep 
 into the mine of his soul; and that he is the 
 maker of his character, the moulder of his life, 
 and the builder of his destiny, he may unerr- 
 ingly prove, if he will watch, control, and alter 
 his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, 
 upon others, and upon his life and circum- 
 stances, linking cause and effect by patient prac- 
 tice and investigation, and utilizing his every 
 experience, even to the most trivial, every-day 
 occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowl- 
 edge of himself which is Understanding, Wis- 
 dom, Power. In this direction, as in no other, 
 is the law absolute that "He that seeketh find- 
 est; and to him that knocketh it shall be 
 opened"; for only by patience, practice, and 
 ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door 
 of the Temple of Knowledge.
 
 FFCT OF THOUGHT 
 
 A MAN'S MIND may be likened to a garden, 
 which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed 
 to run wild; but whether cultivated or ne- 
 glected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no 
 useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance 
 of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will 
 continue to produce their kind. 
 
 Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping 
 it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and 
 fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the 
 garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, 
 useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating 
 toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, 
 useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this proc- 
 ess, a man sooner or later discovers that he is 
 the master-gardener of his soul, the director of 
 his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws 
 of thought, and understands, with ever-increas- 
 ing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind- 
 elements operate in the shaping of his character, 
 circumstances, and destiny.
 
 Thought and character are one, and as char- 
 acter can only manifest and discover itself 
 through environment and circumstance, the 
 outer conditions of a person's life will always be 
 found to be harmoniously related to his inner 
 state. This does not mean that a man's circum- 
 stances at any given time are an indication of his 
 entire character, but that those circumstances are 
 so intimately connected with some vital thought- 
 element within himself that, for the time being, 
 they are indispensable to his development. 
 
 Every man is where he is by the law of his 
 being; the thoughts which he has built into his 
 character have brought him there, and in the ar- 
 rangement of his life there is no element of 
 chance, but all is the result of a law which can- 
 not err. This is just as true of those who feel 
 "out of harmony" with their surroundings as 
 of those who are contented with them. 
 
 As a progressive and evolving being, man is 
 where he is that he may learn that he may grow; 
 and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any 
 circumstance contains for him, it passes away 
 and gives place to other circumstances. 
 
 Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as 
 he believes himself to be the creature of outside 
 conditions, but when he realizes that he is a
 
 JMAH 
 
 creative power, and that he may command the 
 hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which 
 circumstances grow, he then becomes the right- 
 ful master of himself. 
 
 That circumstances grow out of thought every 
 man knows who has for any length of time 
 practised self-control and self-purification, for he 
 will have noticed that the alteration in his cir- 
 cumstances has been in exact ratio with his al- 
 tered mental condition. So true is this that 
 when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy 
 the defects in his character, and makes swift 
 and marked progress, he passes rapidly through 
 a succession of vicissitudes. 
 
 The soul attracts that which it secretly har- 
 bours; that which it loves, and also that which 
 it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished as- 
 pirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened 
 desires, and circumstances are the means by 
 which the soul receives its own. 
 
 Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall 
 into the mind, and to take root there, produces 
 its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and 
 bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and cir- 
 cumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad 
 thoughts bad fruit. 
 
 The outer world of circumstance shapes itself 
 
 1*3]
 
 to the inner world of thought, and both pleas- 
 ant and unpleasant external conditions are fac- 
 tors which make for the ultimate good of the 
 individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, 
 man learns both by suffering and bliss. 
 
 Following the inmost desires, aspirations, 
 thoughts, by which he allows himself to be 
 dominated (pursuing the will-o'-the-wisps of 
 impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the 
 highway of strong and high endeavour) , a man 
 at last arrives at their fruition and fulfilment in 
 the outer conditions of his life. The laws of 
 growth and adjustment everywhere obtain. 
 
 A man does not come to the almshouse or the 
 jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but 
 by the pathway of grovelling thoughts and base 
 desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall sud- 
 denly into crime by stress of any mere external 
 force; the criminal thought had long been se- 
 cretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of 
 opportunity revealed its gathered power. Cir- 
 cumstance does not make the man; it reveals 
 him to himself. No such conditions can exist as 
 descending into vice and its attendant sufferings 
 apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending 
 into virtue and its pure happiness without the 
 
 [*]
 
 .A JMAH 
 
 continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations; 
 and man, therefore, as the lord and master of 
 thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper 
 and author of environment. Even at birth the 
 soul comes to its own, and through every step 
 of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those com- 
 binations of conditions which reveal itself, 
 which are the reflections of its own purity and 
 impurity, its strength and weakness. 
 
 Men do not attract that which they want, 
 but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, 
 and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but 
 their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with 
 their own food, be it foul or clean. The "divin- 
 ity that shapes our ends" is in ourselves; it is 
 our very self. Man is manacled only by him- 
 self: thought and action are the jailers of Fate 
 they imprison, being base; they are also the 
 angels of Freedom they liberate, being noble. 
 Not what he wishes and prays for does a man 
 get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and 
 prayers are only gratified and answered when 
 they harmonize with his thoughts and actions. 
 
 In the light of this truth, what, then, is the 
 meaning of "fighting against circumstances"? 
 It means that a man is continually revolting 
 
 [-5]
 
 <A JMAK 
 
 against an effect without, while all the time he 
 is nourishing and preserving its cause in his 
 heart. That cause may take the form o a con- 
 scious vice or an unconscious weakness; but 
 whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of 
 its possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy. 
 
 Men are anxious to improve their circum- 
 stances, but are unwilling to improve them- 
 selves; they therefore remain bound. The man 
 who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can 
 never fail to accomplish the object upon which 
 his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of 
 heavenly things. Even the man whose sole ob- 
 ject is to acquire wealth must be prepared to 
 make great personal sacrifices before he can ac- 
 complish his object; and how much more so he 
 who would realize a strong and well-poised life? 
 
 Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is 
 extremely anxious that his surroundings and 
 home comforts should be improved, yet all the 
 time he shirks his work, and considers he is jus- 
 tified in trying to deceive his employer on the 
 ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such 
 a man does not understand the simplest rudi- 
 ments of those principles which are the basis of 
 true prosperity, and is not only totally unfitted 
 to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually
 
 attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness 
 by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, de- 
 ceptive, and unmanly thoughts. 
 
 Here is a rich man who is the victim of a 
 painful and persistent disease as the result of 
 gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of 
 money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice 
 his gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his 
 taste for rich and unnatural viands and have his 
 health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to 
 have health, because he has not yet learned the 
 first principles of a healthy life. 
 
 Here is an employer of labour who adopts 
 crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation 
 wage, and, in the hope of making larger profits, 
 reduces the wages of his work-people. Such a 
 man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and 
 when he finds himself bankrupt, both as re- 
 gards reputation and riches, he blames circum- 
 stances, not knowing that he is the sole author 
 of his condition. 
 
 I have introduced these three cases merely as 
 illustrative of the truth that man is the causer 
 (though nearly always unconsciously) of his cir- 
 cumstances, and that, whilst aiming at a good 
 end, he is continually frustrating its accomplish- 
 ment by encouraging thoughts and desires
 
 which cannot possibly harmonize with that end. 
 Such cases could be multiplied and varied al- 
 most indefinitely, but this is not necessary, as 
 the reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action 
 of the laws of thought in his own mind and life, 
 and until this is done, mere external facts can- 
 not serve as a ground of reasoning. 
 
 Circumstances, however, are so complicated, 
 thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions 
 of happiness vary so vastly with individuals, 
 that a man's entire soul-condition (although it 
 may be known to himself) cannot be judged by 
 another from the external aspect of his life 
 alone. A man may be honest in certain direc- 
 tions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dis- 
 honest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; 
 but the conclusion usually formed that the one 
 man fails because of bis particular honesty, and 
 that the other prospers because of bis particular 
 dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judg- 
 ment, which assumes that the dishonest man is 
 almost totally corrupt, and the honest man al- 
 most entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper 
 knowledge and wider experience, such judg- 
 ment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest 
 man may have some admirable virtues which 
 
 I'll
 
 <AS .A JdAH. 
 
 the other does not possess; and the honest man 
 obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. 
 The honest man reaps the good results of his 
 honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon 
 himself the sufferings which his vices produce. 
 The dishonest man likewise garners his own 
 suffering and happiness. 
 
 It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that 
 one suffers because of one's virtue; but not until 
 a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and 
 impure thought from his mJnd, and washed 
 every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a 
 position to know and declare that his sufferings 
 are the result of his good, and not of his bad 
 qualities; and on the way to, yet long before he 
 has reached, that supreme perfection, he will 
 have found, working in his mind and life, the 
 Great Law which is absolutely just, and which 
 cannot, therefore, give good for evil, evil for 
 good. Possessed of such knowledge, he will 
 then know, looking back upon his past ignor- 
 ance and blindness, that his life is, and always 
 was, justly ordered, and that all his past expe- 
 riences, good and bad, were the equitable out- 
 working of his evolving, yet unevolved self. 
 
 Good thoughts and actions can never produce 
 bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never
 
 produce good results. This is but saying that 
 nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing 
 from nettles but nettles. Men understand this 
 law in the natural world, and work with it; but 
 few understand it in the mental and moral 
 world (though its operation there is just as sim- 
 ple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do 
 not cooperate with it. 
 
 Suffering is always the effect of wrong 
 thought in some direction. It is an indication 
 that the individual is out of harmony with him- 
 self, with the Law of his being. The sole and 
 supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn 
 out all that is useless and impure. Suffering 
 ceases for him who is pure. There could be no 
 object in burning gold after the dross had been 
 removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened 
 being could not suffer. 
 
 The circumstances which a man encounters 
 with suffering are the result of his own mental 
 inharmony. The circumstances which a man 
 encounters with blessedness are the result of his 
 own mental harmony. Blessedness, not mate- 
 rial possessions, is the measure of right thought; 
 wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, 
 is the measure of wrong thought. A man may 
 be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor.
 
 Blessedness and riches are only joined together 
 when the riches are rightly and wisely used; 
 and the poor man only descends into wretched- 
 ness when he regards his lot as a burden 
 unjustly imposed. 
 
 Indigence and indulgence are the two ex- 
 tremes of wretchedness. They are both equally 
 unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A 
 man is not rightly conditioned until he is a 
 happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and hap- 
 piness, health, and prosperity are the result of a 
 harmonious adjustment of the inner with the 
 outer, of the man with his surroundings. 
 
 A man only begins to be a man when he 
 ceases to whine and revile, and commences to 
 search for the hidden justice which regulates his 
 life. And as he adapts his mind to that regu- 
 lating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the 
 cause of his condition, and builds himself up in 
 strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick 
 against circumstances, but begins to use them 
 as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a 
 means of discovering the hidden powers and 
 possibilities within himself. 
 
 Law, not confusion, is the dominating prin- 
 ciple in the universe; justice, not injustice, is 
 the soul and substance of life; and righteous-
 
 ness, not corruption, is the moulding and mov- 
 ing force in the spiritual government o the 
 world. This being so, man has but to right 
 himself to find that the universe is right; and 
 during the process of putting himself right, he 
 will find that as he alters his thoughts towards 
 things and other people, things and other peo- 
 ple will alter towards him. 
 
 The proof of this truth is in every person, 
 and it therefore admits of easy investigation by 
 systematic introspection and self-analysis. Let a 
 man radically alter his thoughts, and he will 
 be astonished at the rapid transformation it will 
 effect in the material conditions of his life. 
 Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, 
 but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, 
 and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial 
 thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness 
 and sensuality, which solidity into circum- 
 stances of destitution and disease: impure 
 thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervat- 
 ing and confusing habits, which solidify into 
 distracting and adverse circumstances : thoughts 
 of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into 
 weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which 
 solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, 
 and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts crystal-
 
 lize into habits of uncleanliness and dishon- 
 esty, which solidify into circumstances of 
 foulness and beggary: hateful and condemna- 
 tory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusa- 
 tion and violence, which solidify into cir- 
 cumstances of injury and persecution: selfish 
 thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of 
 self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances 
 more or less distressing. On the other hand, 
 beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into 
 habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify 
 into genial and sunny circumstances: pure 
 thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance 
 and self-control, which solidify into circum- 
 stances of repose and peace: thoughts of cour- 
 age, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into 
 manly habits, which solidify into circumstances 
 of success, plenty, and freedom: energetic 
 thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness 
 and industry, which solidify into circumstances 
 of pleasantness: gentle and forgiving thoughts 
 crystallize into habits of gentleness, which 
 solidify into protective and preservative circum- 
 stances: loving and unselfish thoughts crystal- 
 lize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, 
 which solidify into circumstances of sure and 
 abiding prosperity and true riches.
 
 A particular train of thought persisted in, be 
 it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results 
 on the character and circumstances. A man can- 
 not directly choose his circumstances, but he 
 can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet 
 surely, shape his circumstances. 
 
 Nature helps every man to the gratification 
 of the thoughts which he most encourages, and 
 opportunities are presented which will most 
 speedily bring to the surface both the good and 
 evil thoughts. 
 
 Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, 
 and all the world will soften towards him, and 
 be ready to help him; let him put away his 
 weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo! opportuni- 
 ties will spring up on every hand to aid 
 his strong resolves; let him encourage good 
 thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down 
 to wretchedness and shame. The world is your 
 kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of 
 colours which at every succeeding moment it 
 presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pic- 
 tures of your ever-moving thoughts. 
 
 "You will be what you will to be; 
 Let failure find its false content 
 In that poor word, 'environment,' 
 But spirit scorns it, and is free.
 
 <A JMAH 
 
 It masters time, it conquers space; 
 It cows that boastful trickster, Chance, 
 And bids the tyrant Circumstance 
 
 Uncrown, and fill a servant's place. 
 
 The human Will, that force unseen, 
 The offspring of a deathless Soul, 
 Can hew a way to any goal, 
 
 Though walls of granite intervene. 
 
 Be not impatient in delay, 
 
 But wait as one who understands; 
 When spirit rises and commands, 
 
 The gods are ready to obey."
 
 FFCT OF THOUGH? OH HEALTH 
 
 THE BODY is the servant of the mind. It obeys 
 the operations of the mind, whether they be de- 
 liberately chosen or automatically expressed. 
 At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body 
 sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the com- 
 mand of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes 
 clothed with youthfulness and beauty. 
 
 Disease and health, like circumstances, are 
 rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express 
 themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts 
 of fear have been known to kill a man as speed- 
 ily as a bullet, and they are continually killing 
 thousands of people just as surely though less 
 rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease 
 are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly de- 
 moralizes the whole body, and lays it open to 
 the entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, 
 even if not physically indulged, will soon shat- 
 ter the nervous system. 
 
 Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up 
 the body in vigour and grace. The body is a
 
 JMAH 
 
 delicate and plastic instrument, which responds 
 readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, 
 and habits of thought will produce their own 
 effects, good or bad, upon it. 
 
 Men will continue to have impure and poi- 
 soned blood so long as they propagate unclean 
 thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean 
 life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind 
 proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. 
 Thought is the fount of action, life, and mani- 
 festation; make the fountain pure, and all will 
 be pure. 
 
 Change of diet will not help a man who will 
 not change his thoughts. When a man makes 
 his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure 
 food. 
 
 Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so- 
 called saint who does not wash his body is not a 
 saint. He who has strengthened and purified 
 his thoughts does not need to consider the ma- 
 levolent microbe. 
 
 If you would perfect your body, guard your 
 mind. If you would renew your body, beautify 
 your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disap- 
 pointment, despondency, rob the body of its 
 health and grace. A sour face does not come by
 
 chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles 
 that mar are drawn by folly, passion, pride. 
 
 I know a woman of ninety-six who has the 
 bright, innocent face of a girl. I know a man 
 well under middle age whose face is drawn into 
 inharmonious contours. The one is the result 
 of a sweet and sunny disposition; the other is 
 the outcome of passion and discontent. 
 
 As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome 
 abode unless you admit the air and sunshine 
 freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a 
 bright, happy, or serene countenance can only 
 result from the free admittance into the mind 
 of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity. 
 
 On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles 
 made by sympathy; others by strong and pure 
 thought, and others are carved by passion: who 
 cannot distinguish them? With those who 
 have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, 
 and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I 
 have recently seen a philosopher on his death- 
 bed. He was not old except in years. He died 
 as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived. 
 
 There is no physician like cheerful thought 
 for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no 
 comforter to compare with goodwill for dispers- 
 ing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live
 
 continually in thoughts of ill-will, cynicism, 
 suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self- 
 made prisonhole. But to think well of all, to be 
 cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the 
 good in all such unselfish thoughts are the 
 very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day 
 in thoughts of peace toward every creature will 
 bring abounding peace to their possessor.
 
 THOUGH? tAHV 
 
 UNTIL THOUGHT is linked with purpose there 
 is no intelligent accomplishment. With the 
 majority the barque of thought is allowed to 
 "drift" upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a 
 vice, and such drifting must not continue for 
 him who would steer clear of catastrophe and 
 destruction. 
 
 They who have no central purpose in their 
 life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, 
 troubles, and self-pity ings, all of which are indi- 
 cations of weakness, which lead, just as surely 
 as deliberately planned sins (though by a dif- 
 ferent route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, 
 for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving 
 universe. 
 
 A man should conceive of a legitimate pur- 
 pose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. 
 He should make this purpose the centralizing 
 point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a 
 spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, 
 according to his nature at the time being; but 
 whichever it is, he should steadily focus his 
 thought-forces upon the object which he has set 
 
 [30]
 
 before him. He should make this purpose his 
 supreme duty, and should devote himself to its 
 attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wan- 
 der away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and 
 imaginings. This is the royal road to self-con- 
 trol and true concentration of thought. Even if 
 he fails again and again to accomplish his pur- 
 pose (as he necessarily must until weakness is 
 overcome) , the strength of character gained will 
 be the measure of his true success, and. this will 
 form a new starting-point for future power and 
 triumph. 
 
 Those who are not prepared for the apprehen- 
 sion of a great purpose, should fix the thoughts 
 upon the faultless performance of their duty, no 
 matter how insignificant their task may appear. 
 Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered 
 and focussed, and resolution and energy be de- 
 veloped, which being done, there is nothing 
 which may not be accomplished. 
 
 The weakest soul, knowing its own weak- 
 ness, and believing this truth that strength 
 can only be developed by effort and practice, 
 will, thus believing, at once begin to exert it- 
 self, and, adding effort to effort, patience to 
 patience, and strength to strength, will never 
 
 [3']
 
 cease to (develop, and will at last grow divinely 
 strong. 
 
 As the physically weak man can make him- 
 self strong by careful and patient training, so 
 the man of weak thoughts can make them 
 strong by exercising himself in right thinking. 
 
 To put away aimlessness and weakness, and 
 to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the 
 ranks of those strong ones who only recognize 
 failure as one of the pathways to attainment; 
 who make all conditions serve them, and who 
 think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accom- 
 plish masterfully. 
 
 Having conceived of his purpose, a man 
 should mentally mark out a straight pathway to 
 its achievement, looking neither to the right 
 nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigor- 
 ously excluded; they are disintegrating ele- 
 ments which break up the straight line of ef- 
 fort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. 
 Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish 
 anything, and never can. They always lead to 
 failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all 
 strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear 
 creep in. 
 
 The will to do springs from the knowledge 
 that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great
 
 enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages 
 them, who does not slay them, thwarts him- 
 self at every step. 
 
 He who has conquered doubt and fear has 
 conquered failure. His every thought is allied 
 with power, and all difficulties are bravely met 
 and wisely overcome. His purposes are season- 
 ably planted, and they bloom and bring forth 
 fruit which does not fall prematurely to the 
 ground. 
 
 Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes 
 creative force: he who knows this is ready to 
 become something higher and stronger than a 
 mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuat- 
 ing sensations; he who does this has become the 
 conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental 
 powers. 
 
 [33
 
 IK 
 
 ALL THAT a man achieves and all that he fails 
 to achieve is the direct result of his own 
 thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where 
 loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, 
 individual responsibility must be absolute. A 
 man's weakness and strength, purity and im- 
 purity, are his own, and not another man's; 
 they are brought about by himself, and not by 
 another; and they can only be altered by him- 
 self, never by another. His condition is also his 
 own, and not another man's. His suffering and 
 his happiness are evolved from within. As he 
 thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he 
 remains. 
 
 A strong man cannot help a weaker unless 
 that weaker is willing to be helped, and even 
 then the weak man must become strong of 
 himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop 
 the strength which he admires in another. 
 None but himself can alter his condition. 
 
 It has been usual for men to think anH to 
 
 1 34]
 
 <A JMAK 
 
 say, "Many men are slaves because one is an 
 oppressor; let us hate the oppressor." Now, 
 however, there is amongst an increasing few a 
 tendency to reverse this judgment, and to say, 
 "One man is an oppressor because many arc 
 slaves; let us despise the slaves." The truth is 
 that oppressor and slave are co-operators in ig- 
 norance, and, while seeming to afflict each 
 other, are in reality afflicting themselves. A 
 perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law 
 in the weakness of the oppressed and the mis- 
 applied power of the oppressor; a perfect Love, 
 seeing the suffering which both states entail, 
 condemns neither; a perfect Compassion em- 
 braces both oppressor and oppressed. 
 
 He who has conquered weakness, and has 
 put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither 
 to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. 
 
 A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve 
 by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain 
 weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to 
 lift up his thoughts. 
 
 Before a man can achieve anything, even in 
 worldly things, he must lift his thoughts above 
 slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in or- 
 der to succeed, give up all animality and sel- 
 fishness, by any means; but a portion of it 
 
 [35]
 
 must, at least, be sacrificed. A man whose first 
 thought is bestial indulgence could neither 
 think clearly nor plan methodically; he could 
 not find and develop his latent resources, and 
 would fail in any undertaking. Not having 
 commenced manfully to control his thoughts, 
 he is not in a position to control affairs and to 
 adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to 
 act independently and stand alone. But he is 
 limited only by the thoughts which he chooses. 
 
 There can be no progress, no achievement 
 without sacrifice, and a man's worldly success 
 will be in the measure that he sacrifices his con- 
 fused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on 
 the development of his plans, and the strength- 
 ening of his resolution and self-reliance. And 
 the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more 
 manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the 
 greater will be his success, the more blessed and 
 enduring will be his achievements. 
 
 The universe does not favour the greedy, the 
 dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere 
 surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it 
 helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtu- 
 ous. All the great Teachers of the ages have de- 
 clared this in varying forms, and to prove and 
 know it a man has but to persist in making him- 
 
 [36]
 
 .A 
 
 self more and more virtuous by lifting up his 
 thoughts. 
 
 Intellectual achievements are the result of 
 thought consecrated to the search for knowl- 
 edge, or for the beautiful and true in life and 
 nature. Such achievements may be sometimes 
 connected with vanity and ambition, but they 
 are not the outcome of those characteristics; 
 they are the natural outgrowth of long and 
 arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish 
 thoughts. 
 
 Spiritual achievements are the consummation 
 of holy aspirations. He who lives constantly in 
 the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, 
 who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, 
 will, as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and 
 the moon its full, become wise and noble in 
 character, and rise into a position of influence 
 and blessedness. 
 
 Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown 
 of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aid of 
 self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, 
 and well-directed thought a man ascends; by 
 the aid of animahty, indolence, impurity, cor- 
 ruption, and confusion of thought a man de- 
 scends. 
 
 A man may rise to high success in the world, 
 
 [37]
 
 and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, 
 and again descend into weakness and wretched- 
 ness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt 
 thoughts to take possession of him. 
 
 Victories attained by right thought can only 
 be maintained by watchfulness. Many give 
 way when success is assured, and rapidly fall 
 back into failure. 
 
 All achievements, whether in the business, 
 intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of 
 definitely directed thought, are governed by the 
 same law and are of the same method ; the only 
 difference lies in the object of attainment. 
 
 He who would accomplish little must sacri- 
 fice little; he who would achieve much must 
 sacrifice much; he who would attain highly 
 must sacrifice greatly.
 
 VISIOHS ^HT) 1T>ALS 
 
 THE DREAMERS are the saviours of tKe world. 
 As the visible world is sustained by the invisi- 
 ble, so men, through all their trials and sins and 
 sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful 
 visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity 
 cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their 
 ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows 
 them as the realities which it shall one day see 
 and know. 
 
 Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, 
 sage, these are the makers of the after-world, 
 the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful 
 because they have lived ; without them, labour- 
 ing humanity would perish. 
 
 He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty 
 ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Co- 
 lumbus cherished a vision of another world, and 
 he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision 
 of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, 
 and he revealed it; Buddha beheld the vision of 
 a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect 
 peace, and he entered into it. 
 
 [39]
 
 Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; 
 cherish the music that stirs in your heart, die 
 beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness 
 that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of 
 them will grow all delightful conditions, all 
 heavenly environment; of these, if you but re- 
 main true to them, your world will at last be 
 built. 
 
 To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. 
 Shall man's basest desires receive the fullest 
 measure of gratification, and his purest aspira- 
 tions starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not 
 the Law: such a condition of things can never 
 obtain: "Ask and receive." 
 
 Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so 
 shall you become. Your Vision is the promise 
 of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the 
 prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. 
 
 The greatest achievement was at first and for 
 a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; 
 the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest 
 vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams 
 are the seedlings of realities. 
 
 Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but 
 they shall not long remain so if you but per- 
 ceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You can- 
 not travel within and stand still without. Here
 
 is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labour; 
 confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop; 
 unschooled, and lacking all the arts of refine- 
 ment. But he dreams of better things; he 
 thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace 
 and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds 
 up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a 
 wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession 
 of him; unrest urges him to action, and he uti- 
 lizes all his spare time and means, small though 
 they are, to the development of his latent pow- 
 ers and resources. Very soon so altered has his 
 mind become that the workshop can no longer 
 hold him. It has become so out of harmony 
 with his mentality that it falls out of his life as 
 a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of 
 opportunities which fit the scope of his expand- 
 ing powers, he passes out of it forever. Years later 
 we see this youth as a full-grown man. We 
 find him a master of certain forces of the mind 
 which he wields with world-wide influence and 
 almost unequalled power. In his hands he holds 
 the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, 
 and lo! lives are changed; men and women 
 hang upon his words and remould their char- 
 acters, and, sunlike, he becomes the fixed and 
 luminous centre round which innumerable des-
 
 <AS < 
 
 times revolve. He has realized the Vision o his 
 youth. He has become one with his Ideal. 
 
 And you, too, youthful reader, will realize 
 the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be 
 it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for 
 you will always gravitate toward that which 
 you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will 
 be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; 
 you will receive that which you earn; no more, 
 no less. Whatever your present environment 
 may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your 
 thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will be- 
 come as small as your controlling desire; as 
 great as your dominant aspiration: in the beau- 
 tiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, "You 
 may be keeping accounts, and presently you 
 shall walk out of the door that for so long has 
 seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and 
 shall find yourself before an audience the pen 
 still behind your ear, the inkstains on your fin- 
 gers and then and there shall pour out the 
 torrent of your inspiration. You may be driv- 
 ing sheep, and you shall wander to the city 
 bucolic and open-mouthed; shall wander under 
 the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the stu- 
 dio of the master, and after a rime he shall say, 
 'I have nothing more to teach you/ And now
 
 JMAH 
 
 you have become the master, who did so re- 
 cently dream of great things while driving 
 sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the 
 plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of 
 the world." 
 
 The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indo- 
 lent, seeing only the apparent effects of things 
 and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of 
 fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, 
 they say, "How lucky he is!" Observing an- 
 other become intellectual, they exclaim, "How 
 highly favoured he is!" And noting the saintly 
 character and wide influence of another, they 
 remark, "How chance aids him at every turn!" 
 They do not see the trials and failures and 
 struggles which these men have voluntarily en- 
 countered in order to gain their experience; have 
 no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, 
 of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of 
 the faith they have exercised, that they might 
 overcome the apparently insurmountable, and 
 realize the Vision of their heart. They do not 
 know the darkness and the heartaches; they 
 only see the light and joy, and call it "luck"; 
 do not see the long and arduous journey, but 
 only behold the pleasant goal, and call it "good
 
 4 JMAK 
 
 fortune"; do not understand the process, but 
 only perceive the result, and call it "chance." 
 
 In all human affairs there are efforts, and 
 there are results, and the strength of the effort 
 is the measure of the result. Chance is not. 
 "Gifts," powers, material, intellectual, and spir- 
 itual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are 
 thoughts completed, objects accomplished, vi- 
 sions realized. 
 
 The Vision that you glorify in your mind, 
 the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart this 
 you will build your life by, this you will be-
 
 CALMNESS OF MIND is one of the beautiful 
 jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and 
 patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an 
 indication of ripened experience, and of a more 
 than ordinary knowledge of the laws and opera- 
 tions of thought. 
 
 A man becomes calm in the measure that he 
 understands himself as a thought-evolved be- 
 ing, for such knowledge necessitates the under- 
 standing of others as the result of thought, and 
 as he develops a right understanding, and sees 
 more and more clearly the internal relations of 
 things by the action of cause and effect, he 
 ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, 
 and remains poised, steadfast, serene. 
 
 The calm man, having learned how to gov- 
 ern himself, knows how to adapt himself to 
 others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual 
 strength, and feel that they can learn of him 
 and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man 
 becomes, the greater is his success, his influ- 
 ence, his power for good. Even the ordinary
 
 trader will find his business prosperity increase 
 as he develops a greater self-control and equa- 
 nimity, for people will always prefer to deal 
 with a man whose demeanour is strongly equa- 
 ble. 
 
 The strong, calm man is always loved and 
 revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a 
 thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. 
 "Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet- 
 tempered, balanced life? It does not matter 
 whether it rains or shines, or what changes come 
 to those possessing these blessings, for they are 
 always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite 
 poise of character which we call serenity is the 
 last lesson of culture; it is the flowering of life, 
 the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wis- 
 dom, more to be desired than gold yea, than 
 even fine gold. How insignificant mere money- 
 seeking looks in comparison with a serene life 
 a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, be- 
 neath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, 
 in the Eternal Calm! 
 
 "How many people we know who sour their 
 lives, who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by 
 explosive tempers, who destroy their poise of 
 character, and make bad blood! It is a question 
 whether the great majority of people do not
 
 ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack 
 of self-control. How few people we meet in life 
 who are well-balanced, who have that exquisite 
 poise which is characteristic of the finished char- 
 acter!" 
 
 Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled pas- 
 sion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is 
 blown about by anxiety and doubt. Only the 
 wise man, only he whose thoughts are con- 
 trolled and purified, makes the winds and the 
 storms of the soul obey him. 
 
 Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, 
 under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know 
 this in the ocean of life the isles of Blessed- 
 ness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your 
 ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand 
 firmly upon the helm of thought. In the 
 barque of your soul reclines the commanding 
 Master; He does but sleep; wake Him. Self- 
 control is strength; Right Thought is mas- 
 tery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, 
 "Peace, be still!"
 
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