With its theme that “Mind is the master weaver,” creating our inner character and outer circumstances, the book As a Man Thinking by James Allen is an in-depth exploration of the central idea of self-help writing.

(46) Allen’s contribution was to take an assumption we all share-that because we are not robots we therefore control our thoughts-and reveal its erroneous nature.

我們每個人都認同這樣的看法：我們自己不是機器人，因此能夠控制我們的思想；愛倫的貢獻在于他研究了這一假說，并揭示其錯誤的本質。

解析：

操作技法：分譯法加代詞指代確定主干: Allen’s contribution was to take an assumption and reveal its erroneous nature分清層次，整理語序。

 

Because most of us believe that mind is separate from matter, we think that thoughts can be hidden and made powerless; this allows us to think one way and act another. However, Allen believed that the unconscious mind generates as much action as the conscious mind, and (47) while we may be able to sustain the illusion of control through the conscious mind alone, in reality we are continually faced with a question: “Why cannot I make myself do this or achieve that? ”

雖然我們或許只需要通過意識就能持續的控制這種幻覺，但事實上，我們卻要一直面臨一個問題：我們為什么不能讓自己去做這件事情或去實現那個目標呢？

解析：對與while的處理，很多次了都是考while 做轉折講。

Since desire and will are damaged by the presence of thoughts that do not accord with desire, Allen concluded : “ We do not attract what we want, but what we are.” Achievement happens because you as a person embody the external achievement; you don’t “ get” success but become it. There is no gap between mind and matter.

\Part of the fame of Allen’s book is its contention that “Circumstances do not make a person, they reveal him.” (48) This seems a justification for neglect of those in need, and a rationalization of exploitation, of the superiority of those at the top and the inferiority of those at the bottom.

這種說法似乎使我們可以很正當的去忽視那些需要幫助的人，去使剝削合理化，使上層人的變得更優越，而底層人變得更加弱勢。

 

This ,however, would be a knee-jerk reaction to a subtle argument. Each set of circumstances, however bad, offers a unique opportunity for growth. If circumstances always determined the life and prospects of people, then humanity would never have progressed. In fat, (49)circumstances seem to be designed to bring out the best in us and if we feel that we have been “wronged” then we are unlikely to begin a conscious effort to escape from our situation .

環境似乎就是為了去喚起我們內心的力量，并且如果我們總感覺到不公平，那么我們不太可能可以用自覺的力量去改變境遇。

Nevertheless, as any biographer knows, a person’s early life and its conditions are often the greatest gift to an individual.

The sobering aspect of Allen’s book is that we have no one else to blame for our present condition except ourselves. (50) The upside is the possibilities contained in knowing that everything is up to us; where before we were experts in the array of limitations, now we become authorities of what is possible. 可喜的一面在于，既然知道我們可以主宰一切事情，那么就有無限的可能。以前，我們能夠熟練應對種種局限；現在，我們也能完全的把握可能。