The uncertainties of political and economic life are leaving some of us fearful. A litany of the fears we might have would be a long one. Long before President Franklin Roosevelt warned us about fearing fear, Dr. Frank Crane defined it in terms of positive fear and negative far when he wrote about—-)
TWO KINDS OF FEAR
There are two kinds of fear: centripetal and centrifugal. One draws me to you; the other pushes me from you.
The noblest quality of love is accompanied by fear.
No man loves his wife duly unless he fears to do would bring upon him her contempt or aversion.
No woman loves her husband as she should unless there are pits and fear all around her love, things she is afraid to do.
You have noticed how, when a young fellow falls in love, he is full of tremblings and dreads. He is as frightened as a child in the dark. “Will she scorn me for this? And what will she think of me for doing that?”
A proper self-respect is not possible without self-fear. George Washington, in the cherry tree episode, was afraid to tell a lie; afraid not of punishment, but of himself.
This is Tennyson’s meaning in the lines:
Dowered with the hate of hate; the scorn of scorn,
The love of love.
Many persons fall into grievous error by not understanding this. They think all fear is weakness, and timidity is ignoble. Hence they imagine they should be bold and fearless toward their own conscience, and have no timor of their own modesty.
It should be remembered that the very finest quality of courage, and the keen edge of true love, is pure fear. The bravest soldier is afraid to run, the noblest lover is afraid to be unworthy.
These two kinds of fear are brought out in the Bible. On the one hand “the fear of the Lord” is spoken of as a most commendable thing, the fountain of morals, “the beginning of wisdom.” On the other hand, we are told that “perfect love casteth out fear,” and we are not to fear God but to “boldly approach.”
Which is easily understood if we perceive the two qualities of fear. That which is commended is that sensitive, trembling fear which is always the little sister to a great and pure love.
That which is condemned is the craven fear which has no advice for us but to urge us to flee.
Centipetal is the other side of love.
Centrifugal fear is the other side of hate or repugnance.
If I love you I am afraid of you. If I hate you I fear you. But they are two different feelings.
The love-fear is that of the lover toward his beloved, the child toward his mother, the soul toward God; the hate-fear is that of the criminal toward the policeman; of class against class; of feuds and grudges, of the life that loves evil toward the Lord of life.