The reaction has always a good intention, meaning, in each case,
"Take care! Danger!" You will see that this is so if you will look
for a moment at three comprehensive kinds of fear--fear of self,
fear for self, fear for others. Fear OF self is indirectly fear
FOR self--danger. Fear for others signifies foresensed or
forepictured distress to self because of anticipated misfortune to
others. I often wonder whether, when we fear FOR others, it is
distress TO SELF or hurt to THEM that is most emphatically in our
thought.
Fear, then, is usually regarded as the soul's danger signal. But
the true signal is instinctive and thoughtful reason.
Even instinct and reason, acting as warning, may perform their
duty abnormally, or assume abnormal proportions. And then we have
the FEELING of fear. The normal warning is induced by actual
danger apprehended by mind in a state of balance and self-control.
Normal mind is always capable of such warning. There are but two
ways in which so-called normal fear, acting in the guise of
reason, may be annihilated: by the substitution of reason for
fear, and by the assurance of the WHITE LIFE.
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