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Editorial, Cty Lite and Dramatic Section Hearst's Sunday American, Atlanta, Sunday, September 14, 1913
Fear—The Beginning of Wisdom
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Have
You Thought
oj the Value of Fear?
Fortunate Is the Man
Wisely Afraid.
Afraid That He May Neglect
His Duty.
A fraid That [le May Add Nothing
to the Good Work 7 hat Men Have Done.
■ivi
HE first, earliest, lowest and,
perhaps, most important kind
of wisdom is FEAR. The
lowest forms of animal life
have fear as their only emo
tion, their only “intellectual
force.”
• The jelly fish floating with the tide knows
fear; you touch it and it contracts feebly, to
show that it is afraid.
. The newborn baby, the jelly fish of the hu
man race, utterly helpless, has also fear as its
only wisdom.
Touch a child roughly, its cries and strug
gles show fear; all the other emotions come
later
Fear was the basis of wisdom in the infancy
of the human race, as it is in the human in
fant.
The primitive man lived a life of fear. His
wars were based on fear. He killed, fearing
that he would be killed.
His houses were constructed in fear of ani
mals and of enemies of his own kind.
And the beginning of religion was fear. The
gods were fearful creatures, wind, thunder,
i h-iil ind the mystery of the dark.
The lirst altars that men erected to their
r). were altars to fearful monstrosities.
The i-.Iols of the savages were fearful things,
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Th<> successful priest of the savage was he
who could guarantee that he would control the
'icious ends and tNns annease the fear of the
• superstitious, brumal, primitive m in.
I ong after fear ruled as the only god, men
invented a god that on certain conditions
* would do kind things.
And then, after the god of fear and the god
that could he bribed to do good in return for
sacrifices, came with man's development a con
ception of a higher god, teither to be feared
nor bribed, hut *o be respected as just and a
» giver of equal laws
Education. like religion and society
and government, has its basis in fear.
Unfortunately, too many ignorant edu
cators and brutal parents carry this educa
tion all through the lives of their children,
using fear, punishment and cruelty as per
manent forces, instead of substituting for
tear, as soon as the child can think, kindness,
justice and reason.
**, * r
Hrst in life—in all its forms—comes fear.
tear, even to this day, is the dominating
passion in men as a race.
The duty of man, as Charles Fourier long
ago toid a heedless people, is to understand his
passions, to Control them and direct them.
« n n
^ hat is the v^ilue ot fear, how should man
control it and direct it, now that he is past the
savage state, the infancy of his career on this
planet, and is old enough to begin controlling
himself?
Fear is THE FOUNDATION OF COURAGE
ITSELF.
What we call courage is, nine times out of
ten, an act based upon man's FEAR OF BEING
CALLED A COWARD.
The early savage who went out to tight the
lion or the bear went out because he was afraid
to be laughed at if he stayed al home.
Every general will tell you that the man
who stan !s under fire in his lirst battle stands
not because he is courageous, but rather be
cause he is afraid of being thought cowardly.
Use fear with your children, and with the
pupils in the schools, not that they may dread
brutal punishment, w hich brutalizes you more
that it does them, hut that they may fear to be
unworthy of the kindness and justice with
which you treat them, unworthy of the oppnr
tunitv that you give them.
Dr. Frank Crane, in his excellent editorial.
•The Creed of the Unafraid,” in the August
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’m'ber of Hearsts Magazine, says:
“This is the creed of the Unafraid.
“Whoever He may be who sits in the
Heavens and rules Hie universe, I
shall not be afraid of Him.
“And if it be but a force, it shall
not frighten me.
"Whoever created my soul in
tended me to live my life.
“Sickness may come to me; it can
destroy all of me, but not my courage.
“I shall not be afraid to love, and
to trust wholly.
“1 shall not fear my passions, hut
learn to drive them like thorough
breds.
“I shall not be timid on account of
my weaknesses, but study to guard
against them.
“I shall make friends with Des
tiny, and adjust rnysell to events.
“No man shall cow me. I have a
light to standing room on the earth.
“I shall not falter to look any hu
man being in the face.
“1 believe that ghosts become
harmless natural objects when one
walks up to them; hence if anything
causes me fear I shall examine it anil
try to understand ii.
“1 shall exercise due caution, hut
■-hail not he afraid of my food, of
microbes, diseases not ccidents
The Pic
ture on This
Page Is Taken from
FI ears! s .Magazine for
August. It Illustrates in That
Magazine Dr. Frank Crane’s
Editorial Entitled “ The Creed oj
the Unafraid. ” We Use It Here to Il
lustrate What We Believe to Be Even
More Important, “ The Creed of the Man
WISELY Afraid.”
Against all these I nrn best prepared
by a clear, cool mind.
“I shall not be afraid (hat I cannot
sleep.
“I shall stubbornly shut the door
of my mind against all morbidity,
sucli as suggestions of failure, in
sanity and suicide.
I shall treat with contempt all
superstitions, warnings, premonitions,
prophecies, fortune-tellings, and like
humbuggery.
“I shall not fear on account of my
past; the consequences of my errors
1 shall take like a man.
“Knowing that death is due to
mortals at any moment, I shall live
ready for it now and al all times, it
shall find me unafraid.”
The man unafraid in the best sense of the
word is the man to be envied, it there be such
a man.
But there is NO man unafraid.
The ancients who proudly answered Alex
anders question, saying, “We fear only that
the sky may tall upon us,“ were brave enough
to rush into a burning house with a sword to
tight the tire, brave enough to rush upon the
waves with the same sword. But they were not
brave enough to fight their superstitions, not
brave enough to meet, with self-control, unsel
fish, united action, the better trained mind of
( aesar and his soldiers.
We have not reached the age of the man
unafraid.
Vlan does not know himself, nor whence
he came nor whither he is going.
His life is a life of fear. Youth fears what
it cannot control. Fully developed manhood
tears poverty >nd dependence in old pge Vnd
1,1,1 age fears the mystery of the unknown that
hes on the other side of the grave.
tear is with us and will stay with us. Let
us control it. guide it and make the best use
of it.
Ask your cMMreu and ask vonrself which
is the best and most useful kind of fear.
the Bible tells us, “The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom.”
With a young man. fear of failure is the he-
ginning of success.
With all of us, fear that we may be un
worthy of our fathers and mothers is the four
dation of better life.
Han who is working, who is blest with the
opportunity of doing something worth while,
should have in his mind a realization of the
tact that he enjoys the result of all the work
that men have done before him. that men are
doing now for his benefit, and his great FEAR
should lie that he should come to this earth
and live here and enjoy it, and leave FAILING
TO ADD HtS SHARE, HOWEVER LITTLE,
fearing to die with his dutv undone
* * *
Vlan is studying now (he forces in nature.
He delights in the power of radium, the sending
master with a speed almost as crest as
I he speed of light, he delights in the toys which
run with electric power, the engine and the
wireless apparatus. He is profoundly iniei
ested in the power of the volcano and the earth
quake, as a child is interested.
He has not y et studied as he will one dayntudy
the forces most important to him. the forces
W FTHIN HIMSELF, fear, affection, hope, am
bition and the other forces which, properly un
derstood, controlled and directed, will, in the
end. make the human race what it is destinec
lo be, and this earth the beautifully, perfectly
cultivated and controlled abode of » race pow
erful in (he control of the forces within It,
from the lowest of all of those forces, FEAR
to the highest of all. UNSELFISHNESS AND
UOSMK DEVOTION