The instinctive emotion of fear, so intimately associated
with self-preservation, is one very necessary to our
existence ; without it we should soon be run down
in the street. But the strength of this instinct is
far greater than the uses of our civilised life require,
for modern life is comparatively safe. There is a great
deal of the primitive fear that is left over, as it were,



IOO



THE SPIRIT in



which we cannot use. The consequence is that the
excess of fear tends to flow into wrong channels, or we
fear excessively things which should rightly be objects of
fear. Our surplus fear produces fear of poverty, fear
of sickness and pain, fear of the future, fear of what
might have been, fear of ourselves, fear of death, fear

^of life, fear of failure, and, perhaps most paralysing of
all, fear of fear. If fear were abolished from modern
life, the work of the psychotherapist would be nearly
gone. It was not without cause that the Master of
the soul so often reiterated "Fear not," "Be not

afraid," "Be not anxious."

Is this, then, an instinct we should suppress ? That

Is both impossible and undesirable. The effects of
fear are of two kinds : there is the fear that paralyses
and the fear that inspires. Nothing paralyses our lives
so much as fear, depriving them as it does of that
abundance of power which is our birthright. But
there is also the fear that nerves and inspires and
expresses itself in the effective avoidance of imminent
disaster. Now, we ask what constitutes the differ-
ence between the fear in these two cases ? The
answer is that fear paralyses when it offers no way of

^escape ; it inspires when it is associated with hope. A
hare, suddenly surprised, is either temporarily paralysed
by fear, or stimulated to its topmost speed. It has been
conjectured that the paralysis is probably a protective
mechanism to enable the animal to hide when it cannot
escape. If escape is possible the fear no longer
paralyses, but is expressed in that tension of muscle,
that alertness of mind, which make swift and effective
action possible. Fear which includes a large element
of hope passes into confidence, and this, as we have seen,

'Is the first essential of power. 