Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/803

Rh view. But if he is in a thick forest in the darkness of night, he imagines vaguely and without acknowledging it that the gravest of dangers may be awaiting him a step or two farther on. He may not think of particular dangers, but he is simply suffering from a causeless obscure fear that can not be justified. The darkness prevents him from seeing and distinguishing anything, and the mass of shade around him conceals the unknown, that is, possible danger or something frightful. Children and nervous women, being of a more excitable nature, are more sensitive to this influence than men, who are more able to check their emotions by reasoning. But I believe that no one can withdraw himself completely from it. This fear is also common to animals. All horsemen know that their horses are easily frightened during the night, especially when they are traveling on a road that is new to them.

Another condition, which contributes greatly to augment fear, is solitude. It is an abnormal condition. Man is before everything a social animal, and he can not effectively protect himself unless he is sustained by some of his fellows. Hence that need of society under which a danger shared is confronted cheerfully and resolutely, while a danger to which one is exposed alone is often intolerable. This is the fact aside from the influence of self-respect and false shame, which, however, do not fail to play a part in the matter. We frequently check the manifestations of fear so that no one may witness our cowardice. Perhaps none of us would be brave if we were not seen by anybody. On the word of all men who have encountered real dangers, solitary courage is the hardest and rarest. Fear is augmented in solitude, by the thought that we are not protected by any one. Unless we have extreme confidence in ourselves, the feeling of helplessness under such circumstances becomes insupportable, and this without regard to whether our fear is justified or not. The company of any one, even of an infant or an infirm person, is enough to reassure us. The most manifest sign of solitude is silence. A man must be really brave to resist the triple trial of the unknown, darkness, and solitude with silence. Let a familiar sound—the song of a bird, the striking of a clock, the noise of the sea or the wind, the rolling of a carriage, or a human voice—be heard in this solitude, and what a relief!

If we now look at the symptoms and causes of fear as a whole, we shall be able more clearly to understand the simple law that connects all the facts. All living beings are organized to live, and all their emotions and actions are conformable to this great purpose. Hence we have protective emotions or reflex phenomena, which cause us to flee from danger without intelligence and consciousness having to intervene, of which fear is one.

Man, whose intelligence can reach the causes and the laws of phenomena, knows that he must live, and the love of life is so solidly planted within him, that all that offend life—pain and death—offer