A young man writes me that he is afraid of thunderstorms, and asks if there is no way for him to overcome this weakness. “I am normal in every other respect,” he adds, “but notwithstanding my endeavors to fight off this nervousness I find it to be of no avail; it appears to be a sort of subconscious fear.”  
This is not a matter of ridicule, but a sample of very real and acute suffering to which many persons are subject by fear-panics due to various causes.
 
Many women scream with terror at the sight of a mouse. There is no use telling them that mice will not hurt them. So doing, you are addressing their reason, while 93 the trouble lies not in their intelligence—it is a nervous disease. They scare just as a horse shies at a newspaper flapping in the wind.
 
C?sar Augustus was almost convulsed at the sound of thunder.
 
Tycho Brahe changed color and his legs shook under him on meeting a rabbit.
 
Dr. Samuel Johnson would never enter a room left foot first.
 
Talleyrand trembled at the mention of the word—death.
 
Marshal Saxe was mortally afraid of a cat.
 
Peter the Great could never be persuaded to cross a bridge, and, though he tried to master his terror, was unable to do so.
 
I myself have never been able to rid myself of a fear of horses, and the tamest old nag gives me the creeps.
 
94
And I know a senior in ............