Fear--and the Future

There is no denying the fact that fear sometimes takes hold of the hearts of men. We have all known the wilting of spirit and the feeling of utility when the prospect of the future is not just as we would have it. A wise man expressed himself on this subject a long time ago. Seneca was his name, and his words are worth repeating: “Truth,” he said, “has its own definite boundaries, but that which arises from uncertainty is delivered over to guesswork and the irresponsible license of a frightened mind…Most mortals, even when no troubles are actually at hand…become excited and disquieted…We let ourselves drift with every breeze…Let us, then, look carefully into the matter: It is likely that some troubles will befall us; but it is not a present fact…A fire has often opened the way to flight. Men have been let down softly by a catastrophe. Sometimes the sword has been checked even at the victim’s throat. Men have survived their own executioners…Life is not worth living…if there is no limit to our sorrows, or if we indulge our fears to the greatest possible extent…[So] contemn fear with a resolute spirit even when it is in plain sight…and cease to harass your soul.” Remember this and we are still quoting Seneca “Even bad fortune is fickle.” And so, whatever the prospects, whatever the fears, whatever the disquieting thoughts, there is more to be gained by faith and work and fortitude than there is by living in fear of all that might happen. If we were always to live in fear of all that could happen, we would never know one moment of peace in this life. He who cannot look forward without fear is not a free man; he is in the worst kind of slavery. If life is to be worth living, we must not permit fear to possess us; we must not forever shrink from darksome shadows, always wondering what terrible shapes they are going to assume; we must not forever be hanging in the balance. Men do not think their best or work their best in fear, and we will lose much, and the world will lose with us if we permit our thoughts to be filled with fear. And so we say to a disturbed generation: Go forward and live your lives, and do your work and face the future, and when the “elements” appear to be “in doubt, decide in your own favor,” remembering that “even bad fortune is fickle.”