Intellectualized, fear becomes one of the driving forces of life,
as Hobbes[1] pointed out. Fear of punishment undoubtedly deters
from crime, though it is not in itself sufficient, and the kind
of punishment becomes important. Fear of hunger has brought
prudence, caution, agriculture into the world. Life insurance has
its root in fear for others, who are really part of one's self;
the fear of the rainy day is back of most of the thrift, though
the acquisitive feeling and duty may also operate powerfully.
Fear of venereal disease impels many a man to continence who
otherwise would follow his desire. And fear of the bad opinion of
others is the most powerful deterrent force in the world. "What
will people say" is, at bottom, fear that they will say bad
things, and though it keeps men from the "bad" conduct, it
inhibits the finer nobler actions as well. There is a great deal
of unconventional untrammeled belief in the world that never
finds expression because of fear.
How deeply the fear of death modifies the life of people it is
impossible to state. To every one there comes the awful
reflection that he, that warmly pulsating being, in love with the
world and with living, "center of the universe," HE himself must
die, must be cold and still and have no will, no power, no
feeling; be buried in the ground. Most of the essential
melancholy of the world is due to this realization, and most of
the feeling of pessimism and futility thus has its origin. Mortal
man--a worm of the earth--a brief flower doomed to perish--and
all of it finds final expression in Gray's marvelous words:
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
[1] Hobbes made fear the most important motive in the conduct of
man.
"Why strive, thou poor creature, for wealth and power; sink
thyself in the, Godhead!" "Turn, turn from vain pursuits; fame,
the bubble, is bound to break as thou art." This is one type of
reaction against this fear,--for men react to the fear of death
variously. If man is mortal, God is not, and there is a life
everlasting. The life everlasting--whether a reality or not--is
conjured up and believed in by an effort to compensate for the
fear of death.
I have a son who, when he was three, manifested great emotion if
death were to enter in a story. "Will anything happen?" he would
ask, meaning, "Will death enter?" And if so, he would beg not to
have that story told. But when he was four, he heard some one say
that there were people who took old automobiles apart, fixed up
the parts and these were then placed in other automobiles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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