The Home Circle by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 24, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 24.

The Home Circle.

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

SECRET THOUGHTS.

I HOLD it true that thoughts are things Endowed with being, breath, and wings; And that we send them forth to fill The world with good results or ill.

That which we call our secret thought Speeds to the earth's remotest spot, And leaves its blessings or its woes Like tracks behind it, as it goes.

It is God's law; remember it In your still chamber as you sit With thoughts you would not dare have known, And yet make comrades when alone.

These thoughts have life, and they will fly And leave their impress by and by, Like some marsh breeze, whose poisoned breath Breathes into homes its fevered death.

And, after you have quite forgot Or all outgrown some vanished thought, Back to your mind, to make its home, A dove or raven, it will come.

Then let your secret thoughts be fair— They have a vital part and share In shaping worlds and moulding fate— God's system is so intricate! —Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in Christian at Work.