AS A MAN THINKETH
BY
JAMES ALLEN
Author of "From Passion to Peace"
Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:—
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.
Authorized Edition
New York
CONTENTS
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE BODY
THOUGHT AND PURPOSE
THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
VISIONS AND IDEALS
SERENITY
FOREWORD
THIS little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is notintended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subjectof the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory,its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery andperception of the truth that—
"They themselves are makers of themselves."
by virtue of the thoughts, which they choose and encourage; thatmind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of characterand the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may havehitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave inenlightenment and happiness.
JAMES ALLEN.
BROAD PARK AVENUE,
ILFRACOMBE,
ENGLAND
AS A MAN THINKETH
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
THE aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," not onlyembraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as toreach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man isliterally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum ofall his thoughts.
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, soevery act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, andcould not have appeared without them. This applies equally to thoseacts called "spontaneous" and "unpremeditated" as to those, whichare deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits;thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his ownhusbandry.
"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 causeand effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden