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Editorial, Cty Lite and Dramatic Section Hearst's Sunday American, Atlanta, Sunday, September 14, 1913 Fear—The Beginning of Wisdom 1 n’!!l i i ir' 1 V J' m tr 1 m S* jUk llilBff \dw W0 a WC' / m ) Wm L 'lit! ill if! Ill ( v 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, * .... ^ i ., nf i hn:‘;>.!. 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 li | |i |)it|pltlw|t! lilili'fil ■is Tj |r J . fi ' 11 llli li sir € -I ^ \ wllillll III l 111 li I If S i UnUPl ti 1 Im, "II "I 1||| h * Y ^5 V'-. ’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