II
SHAPES OF FEAR
Now as I look back a little, I see that some of my worst experiences
have not hurt or injured me at all. I do not claim more than my
share of troubles, but "I have had trouble enough for one," as
Browning says,--bereavements, disappointments, the illness of those
I have loved, illness of my own, quarrels, misunderstandings,
enmities, angers, disapprovals, losses; I have made bad mistakes, I
have failed in my duty, I have done many things that I regret, I
have been unreasonable, unkind, selfish. Many of these things have
hurt and wounded me, have brought me into sorrow, and even into
despair. But I do not feel that any of them have really injured me,
and some of them have already benefited me. I have learned to be a
little more patient and diligent, and I have discovered that there
are certain things that I must at all costs avoid.
But there is one thing which seems to me to have always and
invariably hampered and maimed me, whenever I have yielded to it,
and I have often yielded to it; and that is Fear.
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