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