And thus though our anxieties may be a real factor in our success,
and may give us the touch of prudence and vigilance we want, it
does not do to allow ourselves to drift into vague fears and dull
depressions, and we must fight them in a practical way. We must
remember the case of Naaman, who was vexed at being told to go and
dip himself in a mud-stained stream running violently in rocky
places, when he might have washed in Abana and Pharpar, the
statelier, purer, fuller streams of his native land. It is just the
little homely torrent that we need, and part of our cares come from
being too dignified about them. It is pleasanter to think oneself
the battle-ground for high and tragical forces of a spiritual kind,
than to realise that some little homely bit of common machinery is
out of gear. But we must resist the temptation to feel that our
fears have a dark and great significance. We must simply treat them
as little sicknesses and ailments of the soul.
I therefore believe that fears are like those little fugitive
gliding things that seem to dart across the field of the eye when
it is weak and ailing, vague clusters and tangles and spidery webs,
that float and fly, and can never be fixed and truly seen; and that
they are best treated as we learn to treat common ailments, by not
concerning ourselves very much about them, by enduring and evading
them and distracting the mind, and not by facing them, because they
will not be faced; nor can they be dispelled by reason, because
they are not in the plane of reason at all, but phantoms gathered
by the sick imagination, distorted out of their proper shape, evil
nightmares, the horror of which is gone with the dawn.
Pages:
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170