San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-17

and spirits damned that was so largely
ingrained into the early superstition
of the religions of the early part If
this and all of the two preceding CEN
| turtles. No wonder that it was in
| grained into the consciousness and the
thought and the living dreams of all
| sensitive children, to create terror in
them that many of them suffered from
while they lived, transmitted to their
offspring when they brought them in
to the world, thus cursing the coming
| generation with the ghostly fears of
the one that preceded it.
There is too much of this same spir-
it remaining, despite all the corrective
| and humanizing tendencies of the age.
Time was when fear stood upon the
neck of love and ruled the world alone.
No sensible man or woman, none low
ing their kind and moved by the kind
lier influences of improved conditions,
would desire to see that old age of
stern "reminiscences return. True, we
are as yet remote from that period
when love shall stand on the neck of
fear and rule the world alone, but we
have made great strides in that direc-
ton within a quarter of a century.
There is nothing that more distinguish
es these days from those of century
ago and discriminates between them,
than this increase in the spirit of kind
ness that so sensibly pervades the
world.
That there is great cruelty in high
and low places is still true, and this
cruelty is largely the effect of a fear
that has so ingrained Itself in the
whole body of our thought and action
as to render movement without its in
fiuence all but impossible. Perfect
love casts out fear, for he that feareth
is not made perfect in love. Perfec.
trust is the fruit of a full confidence,
this latter the matured fruit on the
tree of affection. This is the antidote
to fear, and earth has no other. There
is nothing so damns the world of ideas
as well as the world of life and motion
as cowardice. Fear is the one thing
that no human soul ever. escapes
wholly from, if the brand in early life
is burned deep into the sensitiveness
of youths formative period.
There is no inheritance can come to
the head or heart or hand of any one,
so destructive of its powers, as this
inheritance of fear. 1t disgraces. 1t
humans. 1t disarms. 1t makes cow
ards of those who need to be courage
Gus. The Irishman who ran away in
battle said that he had a courageous
soul, but that his cowardly legs ran
away with his courageous mind. He
reversed the fact. The true seat of
courage is in the mind, not in the
muscles. 1t is largely useless to train
r.. g
war on the field of terrible conflict, If
he has no courage in his mind, or rather
if he has a cowardly mind. 1t is so
in every walk of life. Courage is as
much required in the peaceful avoca-
tions of life as in war, and fear makes
towards.
The fear that is in the muscles is
not so much to be accounted danger
Gus. There are people of such pecu-
liar temperaments that they always
avoid contentious, no matter how much
they may be urged by circumstances
to take up the gauge of battle, but
they have a royal courage of the mind
and will not shirk zny danger or fear
any foe, if a real principle is at stake.
These people are not towards, they
are the men and women of the rarest
more often hereditary than any other
disease that is known to the faculty.
1t is more so than consumption. Fear
is an insanity. There is no such d
thing as reasoning 1t out Of its abb
surdities. The terrors of fear are as
real as darkness, and come down up
on us as terribly.
Fear is an insanity, we said. 1t Is.
1t leads people to do and say insane
things. 1t leads men to kill their fell
lows in sheer terror, because they are
unhinged by their fears and imagine
their lives are in danger, when there
is no cause for such apprehension.
Fear has led to the commission of more
follies than wilfulness or wickedness
ever has There is no reason in fear,
The man who is insane with fear is
irresponsible for his acts. We read
of the terrible raids of some of our
western steers in the cities to which
they have been transported. Wild
with terror, insane with fear at the I'M
usual sights and sounds they are en-
gines of destruction to all that comes
in their path. Individual insanity
from terror is bad. That of a people
is awful.
The French revolution, called the
Reign of Terror" is an illustration %
the awful spectacle of a whole nation
made insane with terror. We have
had a little illustration of the same
thing in this city and in this state dur
ing the past few days and weeks. Fear
has paralyzed the nerves Of common
sense in some people and a real reign
of terror is the result. This is insan-
ity of kind. Its antidote is in bring
ing in the reign of confidence. This
comes by affectionateness. This is
the slow growth of home through gen
erations. 1t is the product of a high
order of civilization. The higher our
development the lower our fears scale.
Where mind rules, terror is largely I'M
known. Blessed is that child that is
not born to an inheritance of fear.
There is a prick under the soft glove
that Woodford held out to the queen
regent of Spain. 1t made itself felt
when it showed the overwhelming