Text of the meditation
Great is the power of purpose. Purpose goes with intelligence. There are lesser and greater purposes, according to degrees of intelligence. A great mind will always be great of purpose. A weak intelligence will be without purpose. A drifting mind points to a measure of underdevelopment.
The people who have moulded the destinies of humanity have been people mighty of purpose. Like the Roman laying his road, they have followed a well-defined path, and have refused to swerve aside even when torture and death confronted them. The Great Leaders of the race are the mental road-makers, and humanity follows in the intellectual and spiritual paths they have carved out and beaten.
Inert matter yields to a living force, and circumstance succumbs to the power of purpose.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.