The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-03-08
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OPP
Foolish Fears That Haunt the BRAY
est Men

Foolish Fears That Haunt the BRAY
est Men.
Between courage and bravery, ac-
cOrding to competent authorities, is
fixed a great gulf. Physical courage,
natural and simple, may carry a man
safely in and out of great dangers;
bravery is needed when, physical cour-
age being lacking, the spirit leads the
flesh into situations from which nat
ural timidity would withhold it, This
is. perhaps, one of the reasons why
men and women strong to do and dare
strange perils advisedly shrink back,
afraid, from absurd and ridiculous tri-
fies. Natural courage mysteriously
fails to provide for these unexplainable
instances. The object feared is too
small or insignificant to call forth suf-
ficient effort of the will to rob it of it's
unreal terrors.
Fear. again. in some degrees, is said
to be a necessary concomitant Of rev.
erence. The man who fears most is not
necessarily the most reVerent of NOR
tails, but the untaught savage in whose
consciousness fear is carried to its nat
ural extreme of blind superstition GER
tainly knows more reverence than the
civilized man who is periodically en-
shaved by the one irrational dread
which proves stronger than his reason,
but the objects of whose veneration are
few. Many of the absurd and unrea-
sonable terrors which Cypress human
ity may have had their root in some
long-forgotten racial or evolutionary
cause or necessity. Ernest Seton
Thompson opines that the shapeless,
green eyed monster which terrorizes
the wakeful nights of childhood, the
world over, originated in the grim re
atty which embittered the dreaming
existence of the progenital monkey.
asleep on the forest bough. The great
cats of the forest, slow-moving, green
eyed, but dimly perceived through the
thick darkness, stole and crept upon
the inert monkey, unseeing after sun
set, and bore him, shrieking but help
less. away to destruction. The unreal
memory of that long-past terror
troubles the sleepless night-watcher
now. Other unreal and insignificant
terrors-the mice, spiders and black
cats of shrinking femininity and time
honored jokes-and the no less ridicu
lous fears to which truthful men will
confess, Occasionally-may be due to a
similar cause or impulse. For many
of the more general superstitious fears.
such as the dread of spilling salt, the
evil eye, beginning a Journey on Fri
day. or of making one of a party of
thirteen, recognized and historic causes
may be traced out. There still remain,
however. the peculiar and inexplicable
fears for which no manner of reason
can be discovered, and which go far
toward proving all humanity akin.
Men who have faced cannon. for in
stance, who have fought with wild
beasts, endured the solitude of the
great forests and mountains, known
the peril of the great deep and of
mighty tempests, unflinching will
shrink with terror from the thought of
spending night alone in large house.
There are other brave men-and wo-
men-who tremble at the thought of
locked door or of the dark. The sight
or smell of blood terrorizes many 9TH
erwise coura geous individuals some of
them physicians. surgeons, hospital
nurses, missionaries and the like. Ad-
venturous and daring hunters who
quail before the ordinary house dog
are by no means uncommon History
is full of striking instances in which |
persons of acknowledged mental SUI
periority have bowed, in abject terror |
before some trifling or unreasonable !
object. not always intrinsically I'M |
pleasant-as the famous queen. who
tainted upon touching velvet. and the |
violets which so invariably disconcert- !
ed Talleyrand. OF President Lincoln it |
is said as a boy he actually feared to |
lift a tiny. wriggling, new Matched |
chicken in his hands. There are brainy |
and courageous men and women in
plenty who would faint or SILVER if left |
alone with harmless fireside cat.
Grasshoppers. 10 some people, are !
big with an indefinable terror Water !
is a natural element, and natural in !
fants swim without difficulty. but |
swimming instructors tell countless |
true stories of human beings so terri |
bly, afraid of water that it is impossible
to teach them to master it, Heat, cold, !
dull days, fire, thunder, strong winds. |
and even rain have power to hold Ger
tain members of the human family in |
the bondage of fear The dread of thun-
der and lightning is so common and |
as to be almost universal. |
Fear of human crowds or even of small |
gatherings renders the mildest public
occasion a time of real suffering to
many people.
1t is perhaps a natural thing to fear
abjectly, perpetually and profoundly
fears death as to die hundred deaths
daily would seem to be placed in a po-
sition as unreasonable as unpleasant.
Such people, nevertheless, are num-
bered by the thousands The fear of
disease, according to competent au-
thorities, is-or should be-utterly for
eign to the nature of healthy human
being. Yet there are times when the
dread and fear of some particular i'll
ness or malady sweeps the country, the
world, broadcast-as the fear of tuber-
culosis is dismaying countless multi
tudes at the present moment The fear
of poverty, disaster, desolation, Ioneli-
ness, physical prostration. stalks
specter-like, before many individuals
until life holds but little of cheer or
sweetness, There are human beings
who are afraid of music: Others who
shrink from certain colors combine-
fTrN.ae .