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
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 fruit; 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 thought, 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."
Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect
are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of
visible and material things. A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor
or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect
of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts. An ignoble and bestial
character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of
groveling thoughts.
