FEAR, apprehension of approaching evil, danger or harm; solicitude, dread, terror. The term fear is also used in the sense of respect for and obedience to authority, especially as these take the form of awe and reverence to ward the Supreme Being, with due regard to his law and word. The operation of fear on the mind is often, if uncorrected, attended with the most serious consequences, especially where sickness is present or disease threatened. On many persons the influence of fear is far more serious in its effect than the worst form of any dreaded malady. In epidemic diseases the ter ror they inspire is often as fatal as the infec tion — paralyzing the system, and robbing the body of the natural elasticity of its nervous stamina, and the mind of the buoyancy of hope, making victims of those who, from age and strength, had the best probability of escaping. Fear is a mental poison, and the most potent of all antagonists to health and medicine; it is often fatally active in the morbid developments which result in various forms of insanity; and as faith has cured more diseases than physi cians ever prescribed for, so fear is more de structive than the worst physical malady. In
the conflicts of the modern business world, especially in monetary centres, its contagion now and then breaks out in fright which im perils the fortunes of individuals, or a people's financial stability, as a country's cause is some times lost through panic striking its armies in battle. Recent psychology finds in fear one of its most important subjects for analysis and definition; and the physician, the teacher, the moralist and the sociologist all deal with it as an element calling for special study and control in the development of the individual and of society at large. Consult Darwin, 'The Ex pression of Emotions' (1892); James, 'Princi ples of Psychology) (1891); McDougall, 'So cial Psychology' (1911) ; and 'Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics) (1912). See EMOTION.