Page 33 - Microsoft Word - AAMT-2 WB PLANNER V4.docx

AS A MAN THINKETH JAMES ALLEN
147 The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner
148 world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external
149 conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of
150 the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns
151 both by suffering and bliss.
152 Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which
153 he allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o'-the-
154 wisp of impure imagining or steadfastly walking the highway
155 of strong and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their
156 fruition and fulfillment in the outer condition of his life. The
157 laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain.
158 A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the
159 tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of
160 groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded
161 man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external
162 force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in
163 the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered
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