Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought — John Shaqi
Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus FearthoughtFletcher, Horace
Philosophy
Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought
Fletcher, Horace
Fear; Happiness
If the conventional premises relative to death be correct, the common
attitude towards it is useless; and if the hypothetical premises be
correct, as it is better to suppose, even if we cannot assert it, the
common attitude is worse than useless, for it is both harmful and
unjust. If we cultivate fear and mourning in connection with death,
we are unjust to the dead, we are unjust to the living, we are unjust
to ourselves; and, above all, cruel to the tender and impressionable
emotions of children, to whom we are constantly leaving legacies of
cowardice and ignorant egotism, or legacies of pure suggestion, love
and appreciation.
Much might be written about the subject of this chapter, and many
illustrations could be given wherein illogical fears have been, or can
be, ridiculed away, but inasmuch as some of the following chapters
are mainly devoted to this purpose, it is not necessary to more than
suggest a line of argument under the present caption.
THE NOW-FIELD.
Let us work together for a season in the Now-Field.
We cannot work in any other field, but we can and do waste much
valuable time in trying to work in the past or in the future, and in so
doing neglect the precious now.
For recreation we may pleasantly, and perhaps profitably, speculate as
to what there may be in the way of atoms finer than star-dust, and as
to the possible degree of invisibleness of the ultimate ether. We may
also exercise and strengthen our imagination by trying to give form to
the Source of it all. Tiring of guessing in these directions, we may
vary our recreation by attempts to peep under or through the veil which
Nature so persistently holds between the present conscious life and
the one we hope for beyond the veil. It can do no harm to think form
into a forgotten past and into an uncertain future, if, in so doing,
the vital and superprecious now be well guarded against the things we
know to be deterrent to the best growth of the life-plant.
In considering the duty of the now, let us, for convenience of
comparison, liken life to an agricultural season of one year's
duration. We find, in ourselves, that the seed from which we have
unfolded has already been sown, and the life-plant pretty well
grown before we attain consciousness of duty and begin to think
independently. If we are lucky, we have been taught early what the
real object of life is, our duties in it, and the true values to be
cultivated in connection with it.
We have very sensibly learned to get in out of the wet when it rains,
and many other useful aids to comfort as well as to protection, but the
most vital assistants of growth have been neglected, and many positive
deterrents to growth have been cultivated by those who have been our
teachers, and hence it behooves us to look to our habits of thought and
of action in order to get rid of those which are detrimental to our
growth.
Of first importance is the care of the Now-Field.
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