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48
The Mastery of Destiny
cause; it can never be of a different nature from cause. Emerson says:
“Justice is not postponed; a perfect equity
adjusts the balance in all parts of life.”
adjusts the balance in all parts of life.”
And there is a profound sense in which cause and effect are simultaneous, and form one perfect whole. Thus, upon the instant that a man thinks, say, a cruel thought, or does a cruel deed, that same instant he has injured his own mind; he is not the same man he was the previous instant; he is a little viler and a little more unhappy; and a number of such successive thoughts and deeds would produce a cruel and wretched man. The same thing applies to the contrary—the thinking of a kind thought, or doing a kind deed—an immediate nobility and happiness attend it; the man is better than he was before,
