^ The soul is dyed the colour of its thoughts.^
^ Nothing is lost ; even unwritten thoughts do their work. Good thoughts, like breezes from the mountains, purify the moral atmosphere, and the resulting actions. Evil thoughts shape the character, and spread disastrous consequences, for they are positively infectious. We are thus all of us fearfully responsible.^
^ When thoughts have sown man's pathway with happiness and peace they go on to determine character and futurity. Each life memorable for goodness and nobility has for its motive power some noble thought. Each hero has climbed up to immortality upon those golden rounds called good thoughts. Here is that cathedral spirit, John Milton. In his loneliness and blindness his mind was his kingdom. He loved to think of things true and
1 Ruskin, The Eagle's Neat, 205 ( Works, xxii. 262).
2 Marcus Aureliua. * George Frederic Watts, iii. 325.
2 COR. X. 5 277
pure and of good report. Oft at midnight upon the poet's ear there fell the sound of celestial music, which he afterwards trans- posed into his " Paradise Eegained." Dying, it was given him to proudly say : " I am not one of those who have disgraced beauty of sentiment by deformity of conduct, nor the maxims of the free- man by the actions of the slave, but by the grace of God, I have kept my soul unsullied." ^
(3) Thoughts are the most potent weapons in the world, — The carnal weapon may subdue, but it cannot convince. Eome may make a desolation and call it peace, but it has only driven the fever of revolt inward. So long as thought is unsubdued, despotism is in peril. The only real conquest of man is the conquest of his thought ; and the long and bloody catalogue of religious wars, martyrdoms, and persecutions, proves, or ought to prove, to us conclusively the folly of all carnal weapons when directed against the souls of men. So, then, the truth that St. Paul teaches is that the world is to be won for Christ only by the conquest which the ideas and thoughts of Christ make over the souls of men.
^ All the great changes in the life of one man or in the life of the whole of humanity begin and are achieved in thought only. No matter what external changes may take place in the lives of men, no matter how men may preach the necessity of changing their sentiments and acts, the lives of men will not change, unless a change takes place in their thoughts. But let a change take place in thought, and sooner or later, according to the importance of the change, it will take place in the feelings and actions and lives of men, and just as inevitably as the ship changes its direction after the turn of the rudder.^
2. Thought has the rare power of exercising control over the inferior powers. A man of rightly-directed thought cannot well be a low, bad man — a man given to excess. He who is habitually familiar with thought's pale face of just-proportioned beauty will observe the limits and measurements of truth, and be a man known for his temperance and moderation in all things. Earnest and well-chosen occupation of mind disengages the body from ev»ry excess, and disqualifies it for low pursuits. Well-directed activity of mind not only preserves the body in manly health, but acquires wisdom, which is the health of the soul ; " she is more
' N. D. Hillis, A Man's Value to Society, 114.
* Tolstoy, Miscellaneous Letters and Essays ( Works, xxiii. 57).
278 THE CAPTIVITY OF THOUGHT
precious than rubies : and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand ; and in her left hand riches and honour."
(1) Thought generates feeling. — Out of thought there comes feeling, just as fragrance is born of a rose, and a noisome stench of a cesspool. Our sentiments are the exhalations of our thoughts. The heart is the vessel in which are garnered all the odours which steal from the thoughts in the mind. Every thought tends to create a feeling. There are no thoughts devoid of influence. From every thought there proceeds an influence which goes to the making of a disposition. ' The fragrance of a single rose in a large room may be imperceptible, but, perceptible or not, the sweet influence is there, surely diffusing itself through- out the atmosphere. Bring a score of such roses together, and what was imperceptible in the one becomes a strong and grate- ful incense in them all. A single thought in the mind may exhale an almost imperceptible influence. But the influence is there, and steals like an intensely subtle odour into the heart. Let the thoughts be multiplied, and the delicate odours unite to form an intensely powerful influence which we call a feeling, a senti- ment, a disposition. But suppose the thought is not like a sweet rose, but like a poisonous nightshade. Here again the influence of a single thought may be too subtle for our detection, but let the thoughts be multiplied, and the poisonous exhalations will unite to form a sentiment of most destructive strength.
(2) Each thought creates its own feeling, and always of one kind. — There are certain thoughts which, if we will take them into our minds, will inevitably create the feehng of envy. Take other thoughts into our mind and from them will be born the sentiment of jealousy. Take other thoughts into the mind and the heart will speedily swell with pride. Fill the mind with another kind of thought and in the heart will gather the sweet and tender senti- ment of pity. Each thought creates its own sentiment, and we cannot help it. If we choose the rose we must take the fragrance with it. If we choose the nightshade we must take the stench with it. Take the thought and we must of necessity take the sentiment which the thought creates.