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230 at a good end, he is continually frustrating its
231 accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which
232 cannot possibly harmonize with that end. Such cases could
233 be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely, but this is not
234 necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action
235 of the laws of thought in his own mind and life, and until this
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
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