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62 ST. AUGUSTINE 33. ON FEAR! Unquestionably the only cause for fear lies in the fact that what is loved2 might be lost, once acquired, or might not be acquired, once hoped for. Therefore, for each one who has loved and possessed freedom from fear, what fear is there that he can lose this freedom? For we fear losing many things which we love and possess, and so we fearfully stand guard over them; but no one can preserve freedom from fear by being fearful. Again, as for the person who loves freedom from fear, but does not yet possess it and hopes that he will have it, it is not necessary for him to fear that he not get it, for by this fear nothing other than fear itself is feared. But all fear flees something, and nothing flees itself. Therefore fear is not feared. However, if someone thinks it incorrect to say that fear fears something for the reason that fear fears by the soul and not by fear itself, then let him consider this point easily grasped: there is no fear except of a future and imminent evil. But it is necessary for the one who fears that he flee something; and so whoever fears fear is, to be sure, in a most absurd position, because he has in fleeing the very thing which he flees. For, since one fears only the happening of something evil, to fear that fear will happen is nothing else but to embrace what you reject. Now if this is contradictory, as it is, there is absolutely no way for him to fear who loves nothing other than freedom from fear. And for this reason no one can love this by itself and not have it. However, whether this condition alone ought to be loved is another question. Now as for the one who is not terrorized by fear, he is not ravaged by covetousness, nor is he tormented by grief, nor is he agitated by exultant and empty 1 Metu. St. Augustine seems to gather in under this term that whole range of feelings running from apprehension to terror. 2 This word, in the present context, might also be translated "to like," "to find pleasure in," "to delight in," or "to be fond of." I have preferred the translation "to love" because this English term best preserves the full nuance of St. Augustine's own use of amo. See below, Q. 35; and cf. G. Hultgren, Le commandement d'amour chez Augustin (Paris 1939), the whole of Part I, and Gilson, pp. 170 ff. QUESTIONS 33-35 63 delight. For if he covets, since covetousness is nothing else but the love of transient things, it is necessary to fear lest either he lose them, once acquired, or not get them. But he does not fear, therefore he does covet. Again, if he is tormented by mental anguish, it is necessary that he also be vexed by fear, because anguish results from present evils whose imminence occasions fear. But he is free of fear, therefore, of anguish also. Again, if he is frivolously joyful, he is joyful over those things which he can lose. For this reason, it is necessary to fear lest he lose them. But he has no fear whatever, so he does not rejoice frivolously at all. 34. MUST NOTHING ELSE BE LOVED BUT FREEDOM FROM FEAR? If freedom from fear is a vice, then it must not be loved. But no one who is completely happy is fearful, and everyone who is completely happy is without vice. Accordingly it is not a vice not to be afraid. Now presumptuousness is a vice. Therefore not everyone who does not fear is presumptuous, although everyone who is presumptuous does not fear. Again, there are no corpses which fear. For this reason, since the absence of fear is common to the completely happy person, to the presumptuous person, and to the corpse, but the perfectly happy man possesses that quality by the serenity of his mind, the presumptuous man by his foolhardiness, and the corpse by its complete lifelessness, it follows that neither must freedom from fear not be loved (because we desire to be happy), nor must it alone be loved (because we do not want to be presumptuous and devoid of life). 35. WHAT OUGHT TO BE LOVED?I (1) Since lifeless things do not fear, nor would we be persuaded to deprive ourselves of life so that we...

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