Text of the meditation
A person is great in knowledge, great in themselves, and great in their influence in the world, in the measure that they are great in self-control. Wonderful as are the forces in nature, they are vastly inferior to that combination of intelligent forces that comprise the human mind, and that dominate and direct the blind mechanical forces of nature.
Therefore it follows that to understand, control and direct the inner forces of passion, desire, will and intellect is to be in possession of the destinies of people and nations. One who understands and dominates the forces of external nature is the natural scientist; but one who understands and dominates the internal forces of the mind is the divine scientist; and the laws that operate in gaining a knowledge of external appearances operate also in gaining a knowledge of internal verities.
The end of knowledge is use, service, the increase of the comfort and happiness of the world.
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.