As a Man Thinketh

are its fruits; 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 thoughts, 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 is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for Allen's practical philosophy of successful living has awakened millions to the discovery and perception of the truth that "they themselves are makers of themselves". Building on the Bible verse. "As a man thinketh, so he is", Allen insists that it is within the power of each person to form his own character and create his own happiness.