The sooner they are resolved into their primitive elements the better. The imagination should never be suffered to dwell upon their decay.”
Whatever the means, the task of conquering fear is the most important in character-building, and it will repay any effort. Not until this is done, and effectively, finally done, can the human soul take its proper place, rise to its God-given dominion, and progress to higher and yet higher planes of power.
Chapter VI.
Killing Emotions
Anger and worry not only dwarf and depress, but sometimes kill.—Horace Fletcher.
Violence is transient. Hate, wrath, vengeance are all forms of fear, and do not endure. Silent, persistent effort will dissipate them all. Be strong.—Elbert Hubbard.
FEAR is not the only emotion that can do us deadly harm. Weak-hearted persons are warned at peril of their lives against all unusual and disturbing emotions, but the injury to sounder persons is only of lesser degree. Many a violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and death. Grief, long-standing jealousy, and corroding anxiety are responsible for many cases of insanity. Emotion thus kills reason.
Grief is one of the best known and most recognized of these killing emotions, as has already been mentioned. Correggio is said to have died of chagrin that he received only forty ducats for a picture that is now one of the treasures of the Dresden gallery. Keats died of criticism too keen for his sensibilities, as have hundreds of other sensitive souls. Instances are not rare of young girls dying from disappointment in love.
Even joy kills when its impact is too sudden. The daily papers sometimes tell of an aged parent dying on the sudden arrival of a long-lost child, or of the news of a great good fortune having a fatally exciting effect. A man in Paris died when his number proved a winning one in a lottery. Surprise at her son’s bringing home a bride killed Mrs. Corea, of Copake, N. Y., in five minutes.
Even if the emotion is not strong enough to kill, its effect may be most injurious. A fit of anger will destroy appetite, check digestion, and unsettle the nerves for hours, or even days. It upsets the whole physical make-up, and, by reaction, the mental and the moral. Just as it changes a beautiful face to a hideous one, it changes the whole disposition for the time being. Anger in a mother may even poison a nursing child. Extreme anger or fright may produce jaundice, and these or other emotions sometimes cause vomiting.
Jealousy will upset the entire system, and is one of the most deadly enemies to health, happiness, and success. Victims of jealousy oftentimes lose their health entirely until the cause is removed, and become so demoralized mentally that they commit murder or suicide, or go insane. A standing head-line in Paris newspapers is “Drames Passionels” (Tragedies from Passion). A strong, continual hatred will sometimes not only destroy digestion, assimilation, and peace of mind, but also absolutely ruin character.
These bodily effects of the emotions, and many others, are in part due to certain chemical products formed in the body by the emotions. Medical men say that they are analogous to the venom of poisonous snakes, which is likewise secreted under the influence of fear and anger. The snake has a sac in which to store the venom; we have none, and it spreads through all the tissues in spite of efforts to eliminate it.
Prof. Elmer Gates, who has gone further than any other scientist into the investigation of emotions, says:
“It need not surprise any one that the emotions of sadness and pain and grief affect the bodily secretions and excretions, because every one must have observed that during these depressing emotions the respiration goes on at a slower rate, the circulation is retarded, digestion is impaired, the cheeks become pale, the eyes grow lustreless, and so forth.”
By various means and ingenious instruments, testing the “fatigue point,” the “reactionary period,” etc., Professor Gates determined that a person is capable of greater muscular, intellectual, and volitional activity under the influence of happy moods than under the influence of depressing emotions.
“The system makes an effort to eliminate the metabolic products of tissue-waste,” says Professor Gates, “and it is therefore not surprising that during acute grief tears are copiously excreted; that during sudden fear the bowels are moved and the kidneys are caused to act, and that during prolonged fear the body is covered with a cold perspiration; and that during anger the mouth tastes bitter—due largely to the increased elimination of sulpho-cyanates. The perspiration during fear is chemically different, and even smells different than during a happy mood.”
After pointing out the part elimination of poisons takes in bodily economy, Professor Gates continues:
“Now it can be shown in many ways that the elimination of waste products is retarded by the sad and painful emotions; nay, worse than that, these depressing emotions directly augment the amount of these poisons. Conversely, the pleasurable and happy emotions, during the time they are active, inhibit the poisonous effects of the depressing moods, and cause the bodily cells to create and store up vital energy and nutritive tissue products.
“Valuable advice may be deduced from these experiments; during sadness and grief an increased effort should be volitionally made to accelerate the respiration, perspiration, and kidney action, so as to excrete the poison more rapidly. Take your grief into the open air, work till you perspire; by bathing wash away the excreted eliminates of the skin several times daily; and above all, use all the expedients known to you—such as the drama, poetry, and the other fine arts, and direct volitional dirigation, to educe the happy and pleasurable emotions. Whatever tends to produce, prolong, or intensify the sad emotions is wrong, whether it be dress, drama, or what not. Happiness is a means rather than an end—it creates energy, promotes growth and nutrition, and prolongs life. The emotions and other feelings give us all there is of enjoyment in life, and their scientific study and rational training constitute an important step in the art of using the mind more skilfully and efficiently. By proper training the depressing emotions can be practically eliminated from life, and the good emotions rendered permanently dormant. All this is extremely optimistic.”
Nursing grief month after month, or year after year, as so many do, is a crime against oneself, and against all others with whom one comes in contact. It does absolutely no good to anybody, least of all to the grieving person, who certainly is no happier for it. The person dead or gone away can take no pleasure in the perpetual mourning, and everybody who lives with the mourner is depressed and injured by the pall of lugubriousness. Such mourning is only self-pity, a form of selfishness. Pleasure and comfort from a certain source may have gone out of your life, but why not live in the joyous memory of what was once enjoyed, rather than make yourself and many others miserable because you cannot have a constant supply of this same pleasure? What would you think of a tourist who came back from Switzerland weeping and mourning because he could not always remain in some beautiful valley and enjoy the loveliest view he had ever seen? You expect his eye to grow bright and his manner animated as he tells of the beauty he saw and the pleasure he felt.
“In this connection,” says Horace Fletcher, “the suggestion should be urged that separation—as in death—is unessential as compared with the privilege of having known a beloved one, and that appreciation and gratitude should always outweigh regret in relation to an inevitable change.
“The attitude toward the separation called death should be such as to induce the thought, and even the expression: ‘Pass on, beloved; enter into the better state which all the processes of nature teach are the result of every change; it will soon be my time to follow; my happiness at your preferment attend you; my love is
