As a Man Thinketh

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 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

perception 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 PARK AVENUE,

ILFRACOMBE,

ENGLAND

AS A MAN THINKETH

THOUGHT AND CHARACTER

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 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 own

husbandry.

"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 continued 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 harbouring of grovelling thoughts.

Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he

forges the weapons by which 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 descends below the level of the

beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character,

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,