306 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



duce fear ; the more so that the subject does not know how severe it is 

 to be. 



In the higher moral education, the management of the passion of 

 fear is of the greatest consequence. The evils of operating by means 

 of it are so great that it should be reserved for the last resort. The 

 waste of energy and the scattering of the thoughts are ruinous to the 

 interests of mental progress. The one certain result is to paralyze and 

 arrest action, or else to concentrate force in some single point, at the 

 cost of general debility. The tyrant, working by terror, disarms rebel- 

 liousness, but fails to procure energetic service, while engendering ha- 

 tred and preparing for his overthrow. 



The worst of all modes and instruments of discipline is the employ- 

 ment of spiritual, ghostly, or superstitious terrors. Unless it were to 

 scourge and thwart the greatest of criminals the disturbers of the 

 peace of mankind hardly anything justifies the terrors of superstition. 

 On a small scale, we know what it is to frighten children with ghosts ; 

 on a larger scale is the influence of religions dealing almost exclusively 

 in the fear of another life. 



Like the other gross passions, terror admits of being refined upon 

 and toned down, till it becomes simply a gentle stimulation; and the 

 reaction more than makes up for the misery. The greatest efforts in 

 this direction are found in the artistic handling of fear, as in the sym- 

 pathetic fears of tragedy, and in the passing terrors of a well-con- 

 structed plot. In the moral bearings of the emotions, its refined modes 

 are shown in the fear of giving pain or offense to one that we love, 

 respect, or venerate. There may be a considerable degree of the de- 

 pressing element even in this situation ; yet the effect is altogether 

 wholesome and ennobling. All superiors should aspire to be feared in 

 this manner. 



Timidity, or susceptibility to fear, is one of the noted differences of 

 character; and this difference is to be taken into account in discipline. 

 The absence of general vigor, bodily and mental, is marked by timidity ; 

 and the state may also be the result of long bad usage, and of per- 

 verted views of the world. In the way of culture, or of high exertion 

 in any form, little is to be expected from thoroughly timid natures ; 

 they can be easily governed, so far as concerns sins of commission, but 

 their omissions are not equally remediable. 



The conquest of superstitious fears is one of the grandest objects of 

 education taken in its widest compass. It cannot be accomplished by 

 any direct inculcation ; it is one of the incidental and most beneficial 

 results of the exact study of Nature in other words, science. 



4. The Social Motives. This is perhaps the most extensive and 

 the least involved of all the emotional influences at work in education. 



The pleasures of love, affection, mutual regard, sympathy, or socia- 

 bility, make up the foremost satisfaction of human life ; and as such 

 are a standing object of desire, pursuit, and fruition. Sociability is a 



