Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/802

782 of a pile-driver which thumped down every two or three minutes upon a post. The bystanders would shut their eyes at every crash of the machine, and I was not any more able than they were to keep from doing so.

Three other conditions favorable to the excitation of fear are those of the unknown, of darkness, and of solitude. The fear of the unknown has been named misoneism, μῖσος, dislike; νέος, new); or, to use a more familiar etymology, neophobia. It is best exemplified in children and savages; for in mature man use and reason have, as a rule, intervened to correct the instinctive feeling. An infant is nearly always afraid at the first sight of a strange animal, even though it be not very large, but may soon become accustomed to its presence. To savages also, whose intelligence is of an infantine grade, everything that does not enter into the line of daily objects is the subject of fear, when it is imposing in size and vigorous in movement, or of simple amazement when it is small and appears inoffensive. Higher minds, instead of shunning novelty, seek it eagerly. In the student, curiosity takes the place of neophobia. But that curiosity implies a degree of courage; for every unknown thing supposes a possible danger, and real complete security exists only in the face of objects the innocence of which we have tested. We are thus brought back by a rather tortuous way to what we have already said of habit, exercise, and professional courage.

Animals that are used to see man frequently cease to fear his presence. Domestic animals have no such fear of man as wild animals show. Animals also which have never been hunted show no fear when a person comes among them. The most cowardly animals are those which have been most actively pursued. The character of being wild and easily frightened seems to be one that is transmissible to descendants. Since there is no reason for fear existing when there is nothing threatening, the emotion in animals can be explained only by the fact that for series of generations they have been obliged to sustain themselves by flight against aggressors upon them. Neophobia, therefore, should be met among those animals which have experienced dangers, or whose ancestors have experienced dangers. It does not have to be shown that nearly all animals come under these conditions. The more unknown the unknown, the greater is the fear; and the fear of what are supposed to be supernatural phenomena is, where it exists, extremely great.

The effect of darkness in increasing or creating fear is explained by reference to the unknown as a principal cause of the emotion. Darkness is, in fact, the unknown. Light is the one of all the senses that tells us most clearly what is around us; and when it can not perform its part we are of necessity unquiet and troubled. A man traveling in the open field in the full light of day sees everything around him, and goes on boldly in the knowledge that no enemy can escape his