Evening star., 1913-04-06
The immortality Of Fear.
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

1t is doubtful if fear is ever of any
moral use. 1t is doubtful if a man who
| refrains from doing wrong because of
| his fear Of punishment is any better than
| the man who does the wrong and is not
afraid.
| We are only beginning the proper study
| of psychology. and not until we get to-
| gether a dependable body of psychologi-
| cal truths can we have reliable system
| of ethics.
We are already giimpsing this truth.
that the effect of fear upon ones morals
is wholly toxic: i'm plain English, fear is
poison in any shape or form.
Sometimes it is necessary to use fear,
but it is legitimately used only to pro-
tect the offender or his victim from harm
and never to improve the character. For
instance we can properly play upon a
child's fear to keep him from going too
near the precipice or from handling re-
volver, but that is simply to protect his
life. On the contrary, it is never right
, to excite his fear to induce him to be
truthful, honest and gOod-that is to say,
when the effect is character, fear is a
dangerous means.
In the moral realm probity, honesty and
virtue in general not ends in them
selves; they are praiseworthy only when
they are the natural forthputting Of the
mind and heart.
What one does from fear Is never good.
All the real virtues are forms of cour-
age. y woman who is pure because she
! is afraid of the consequences of being
otherwise is. to use Pope's phrase, "a
rake at heart.
A man who tells the truth for fear of
, being caught if he We're to lie is a liar;
| he is worse liar than the man that lies
, and is not afraid: for to his inner dispo-
sition to lie is added cowardice
The only. safe character to build up in
your child is that which renders him not
afraid to be good-that is, to tell the
truth. be honest and keep clean; unafraid
| of any losses or hurts that may come to
him thereby.
In other words a genuinely good char
acter is one that is not afraid to be good !;
a bad character is one that is either
afraid to be good or afraid to be bad.
The one who Is afraid to be good is the
open sinner, for whom there Is some
hope: the one who is afraid to be bad is
the Pharisee, for whom there is small
hope
The fundamental falsehood of false
hoods is that goodness and virtue are
somehow weak and timid and fearsOme ;
or that it is safe only in conventions s
shelter
The fundamental thing to learn in
ethics Is that goodness Is positive. con-
structive forceful, aways a form of
courage; and that badness is never brave
always form of moral lesion. cowardly
and weak. If We could get the world to
believe this. people would cease sneering
at virtue and cease admiring the rapscal-
lions
| I find a fine sentence in Sir James
Macintosh, where he says of Nine. de
Maintenon that '.she was as virtuous as
the fear of hell and the fear of shame
could make her."
The saving thing to learn about un-
cleanness, lying and dishonesty is that
when one gives way to such things "a
power is gone from him which nothing
can restore" to quote Mrs. Jameson; ''the
healthy, clear vision with which q fresh.
pure mind looks round upon the social
and natural world. beholding the soul Of
goodness even in things evil.'