Page 38 - AAMT-2019 Workbook

AS A MAN THINKETH JAMES ALLEN
235 is done, mere external facts cannot serve as a ground of
236 reasoning.
237 Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so
238 deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly
239 with individuals, that a man's entire soul condition (although
240 it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another
241 from the external aspect of his life alone. A man may be
242 honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations; a man may
243 be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the
244 conclusion usually formed that the one man fails because of
245 his particular honesty, and that the other prospers because
246 of his particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial
247 judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost
248 totally corrupt, and honest man almost entirely virtuous. In
249 the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience, such
250 judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may
251 have some admirable virtues which the other does not
252 possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are
253 absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results
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