Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-11-17
ON THINKING.
The Manner and Matter OF Ones
Thoughts a Good Test OF
Ones Character.

OhR ShArhcter.
Much of our thinking is pointless. 1t
has no aim. How much brain tissue
people waste bilding air castles. What
use is it TO think on what we would do
if we had been born a prince or prin-
cess? What use is il to think on past
troubles? No Doubt you have, as Miss
Wiggin sugges :. been through seas
of trouble, but that is no reason why
you should be everlastingly splitting
up brine" But you will if you don't
watch your thinking.
Sometimes we go so far as TO think
on things positively vicious. A man
may go on drunken spree in his mind.
though he has not money enough to do
It in reality. When a man gets into
that habit he is in danger of fastening
certain pictures on the walls of mem
DRY which he viii not be able to take
down by and by. Sometimes we think
on things to damage other people. 1t
is said that the skill used in making
some samples of counterfeit money
would be sufficient to enable man TO
make an honest living easily. How vast
an amount of energy is expended in
thinking evil! And all the while ii is
possible for us to be thinking on good
things. The world is full of them and
the mind will gravitate toward them If
we train il right.
Why not think beautiful things? The
beauty of nature is increasingly at
tractive to many. We can hardly be-
heve the story that Petrarch was the
first man for centuries TO climb a
mountain simply to enjoy the beauty
of the prospect.
beauty even more rare appears in
life. Modern Stephens are laying down
their lives without malice for the sake
of those who care nothing for them.
Why not think more on the quiet hero
isms, unselfshness, self-effacement of
everyday life? Doing so will steadily
sweeten any temper and give courage
TO the most dependent.
But you say that this is easy for
those who live in houses of beauty and
with people of refinement, but Your
lot is cast close TO the soil, amid con-
slant struggles for existence That
makes it harder, in some ways. But
this is true; Manual labor often leaves
the mind free to go off into excursions
while the work goes on. On what kind
of excursions does il go? That depends
on itself. 1t may revel in beauty and
truth while the hands are soiled.
Does it?
n man may control his thoughts.
Did You ever make it rule TO have
some carefully chosen themes to think
On when it CHANGED that YOU have
spare moment? Perhaps ii is some
sweet face of the long ago, now shut
out from your sight, but not from
memory; or some heroic deed, or some
snatch of high song, or some picture
you saw somewhere which remained
with you. And your mind has formed
the habit, when it is free, of return
ing to those things for feast. 1t is
well. That kind of thinking enriches
the thinker in the very act
As man thinketh in his head so is
ne. This is a delightful or an awful
fact, as we live in one way or in an
other. We may, indeed, test our lives
by asking ourselves what are nv stock
themes for meditation. There is no
power which can drag a man to he'll if
that mans thoughts involuntarily and
steadily turn to the things which are
true and lovely and of good report.
That man carries his Heaven with him.
w. p. Mckee, in Chicago Standard.