myths, in the Valkyria, the Wish-maidens, for instance, who
carried the decrees of Odin to earth.

This is no mean origin, for a wish, a desire, conscious or unconscious,
in sensation only or in emotion as well, is the fundamental postulate of
every sort of development, of improvement, of any possible future, of
life of any kind, mental or physical. In its broadest meaning, science
and history endorse the exclamation of the unhappy Obermann: "_La perte
vraiment irreparable est celle des desirs._"[53-2]

The sense of unrest, the ceaseless longing for something else, which is
the general source of all desires and wishes, is also the source of all
endeavor and of all progress. Physiologically, it is the effort of our
organization to adapt itself to the ever varying conditions which
surround it; intellectually, it is the struggle to arrive at truth; in
both, it is the effort to attain a fuller life.

As stimuli to action, therefore, the commonest and strongest of all
emotions are Fear and Hope. They are the emotional correlates of
pleasure and pain, which rule the life of sensation. Their closer
consideration may well detain us awhile.

In the early stages of religious life, whether in an individual or a
nation, the latter is half concealed. Fear is more demonstrative, and as
it is essentially destructive, its effects are more sudden and visible.
In its acuter forms, as Fright and Terror, it may blanch the hair in a
night, blight the mind and destroy the life of the individual. As Panic,
it is eminently epidemic, carrying crowds and armies before it; while in
the aggravated form of Despair it swallows up all other emotions and
prompts to self destruction. Its physiological effect is a direct
impairment of vitality.

Hope is less intense and more lasting than fear. It stimulates the
system, elates with the confidence of control, strengthens with the
courage derived from a conviction of success, and bestows in advance the
imagined joy of possession. As Feuchtersleben happily expresses it:
"Hope preserves the principle of duration when other parts are
threatened with destruction, and is a manifestation of the innermost
psychical energy of Life."[54-1]

Both emotions powerfully prompt to action, and to that extent are
opposed to thought. Based on belief, they banish uncertainty, and
antagonize doubt and with it investigation. The religion in which they
enter as the principal factors will be one intolerant of opposition,