and to use
every true safeguard against it. The presence of danger is a source of
strength to the brave; and the source of abiding courage is not in the
nerves, but in the spirit and the will behind them. It is the clear
statement of this fact that will persuade him The fact may have to be
stated many times, but it should never be argued. And the more quietly
and gently and earnestly it is stated, the sooner it will convince, for
it is the truth that makes us free.

Fear keeps the brain in a state of excitement. Even when it is not
consciously felt, it is felt sub-consciously, and we ought to be glad
to have it aroused, in order that we may see it and free ourselves, not
only from the particular fear for the time being, but from the
subconscious impression of fear in general.

Is seems curious to speak of grappling with the fear of insanity, and
conquering it by being perfectly willing to be insane, but it is no
more curious than the relation of the centrifugal and the centripetal
forces to each other. We need our utmost power of concentration to
enable us to yield truly, and to be fully willing to submit to whatever
the law of our being may require. Fear contracts the brain and the
nerves, and interrupts the circulation, and want of free circulation is
a breeder of disease. Dropping resistance relaxes the tension of the
brain and nerves, and opens the channels for free circulation, and free
circulation helps to carry off the tendency to disease. If a man is
wholesomely willing to be insane, should such an affliction overtake
him, he has dropped all resistance to the idea of insanity, and thus
also to all the mental and physical contractions that would foster
insanity. He has dropped a strain which was draining his brain of its
proper strength, and the result is new vigor to mind and body. To drop
an inherited strain produces a great and wonderful change, and all we
need to bring it about is to thoroughly understand how possible and how
beneficial it is. If we once realize the benefit of dropping the
strain, our will is there to accomplish the rest, as surely as it is
there to take our hand out of the fire when it burns.

Then there is the fear of contagion. Some people are haunted with the
fear of catching disease, and the contraction which such resistance
brings induces a physical state most favorable to contagion. There was
once a little child whose parents were so full of anxious fears that
they attempted to pro