There is no harm in confronting our disorders or misfortunes. On the contrary, the attempt

is wholesome. Much of what we dread is really due to indistinctness of outline. If we have the courage to say to ourselves, what is this thing, then？ Let the worst come to the worst, and what then？ We shall frequently find that after all it is not so terrible. What we have to do is to subdue nervous, insane fright. Fright is often prior to an object; that is to say, the fright comes first and something is invented or discovered to account for it. There are certain states of body and mind which are productive of objectless fright, and the most ridiculous thing in the world is able to provoke it to activity. It is perhaps not too much to say that any calamity the moment it is apprehended by the reason alone loses nearly all its power to disturb and unfix us.