Hence, while idealist, he is not impracticable; while he sees the power of thought, he recognises its limitations in space and time; and while asserting the vital importance of right thought and right belief, he realises that only slowly does the flower of thought ripen into the fruit of action.
But on the importance of thought he lays a stress unusual in modern life.

It is the cant of the day, in judging the value of a man, that "it does not matter what he believes but only what he does." That is not true.

It matters infinitely what a man believes; for as a man's belief so he is; as a man's thought, so inevitably is his action.
There was a time in the world of thought when it was said with equal error: "It does not matter what a man does, provided his faith is right." If that word "faith" had meant the man's thought in its integrity, then there would have been but little error; for the right thought would inevitably have brought right action; but in those days right thought meant only orthodox thought, according to a narrow canon of interpretation, the obedient repetition of creeds, the blind acceptance of beliefs imposed by authority.

In those days what was called Orthodoxy in religion was made the measure of the man, and judgment depended upon orthodox acquiescence.

Against that mistake the great movement that closed the Middle Ages was the protest of the intellect of man, and it was declared that no external authority must bind the intellect, and none had right to impose from outside the thought which is the very essence of the man--that great assertion of the right of private judgment, of the supreme principle of the free intelligence, so necessary for the progress of humanity.