oined the word
fearthought to stand for the unprofitable element of forethought, and
have defined the word 'worry' as fearthought in contradistinction to
forethought. I have also defined fearthought as the self-imposed or
self-permitted suggestion of inferiority, in order to place it where it
really belongs, in the category of harmful, unnecessary, and therefore
not respectable things."[47]

[47] Horace Fletcher: Happiness as found in Forethought Minus
Fearthought, Menticulture Series, ii. Chicago and New York, Stone.
1897, pp. 21-25, abridged.

The "misery-habit," the "martyr-habit," engendered by the prevalent
"fearthought," get pungent criticism from the mind-cure writers:--

"Consider for a moment the habits of life into which we are born.

There are certain social conventions or customs and alleged
requirements, there is a theological bias, a general view of the world.
There are conservative ideas in regard to our early training, our
education, marriage, and occupation in life. Following close upon
this, there is a long series of anticipations, namely, that we shall
suffer certain children's diseases, diseases of middle life, and of old
age; the thought that we shall grow old, lose our faculties, and again
become childlike; while crowning all is the fear of death. Then there
is a long line of particular tears and trouble-bearing expectations,
such, for example, as ideas associated with certain articles of food,
the dread of the east wind, the terrors of hot weather, the aches and
pains associated with cold weather, the fear of catching cold if one
sits in a draught, the coming of hay-fever upon the 14th of August in
the middle of the day, and so on through a long list of fears, dreads,
worriments, anxieties, anticipations, expectations, pessimisms,
morbidities, and the whole ghostly train of fateful shapes which our
fellow-men, and especially physicians, are ready to help us conjure up,
an array worthy to rank with Bradley's 'unearthly ballet of bloodless
categories.'

"Yet this is not all. This vast array is swelled by innumerable
volunteers from daily life--the fear of accident, the possibility of
calamity, the loss of property, the chance of robbery, of fire, or the
outbreak of war. And it is not deemed sufficient to fear for
ourselves. When a friend is taken ill, we must forth with fear the
worst and apprehend death. If one meets with sorrow ... sympathy means
to enter into and increase the s