As a Man Thinketh

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. 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.

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."