Page 215 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

ing one's self too old to exercise these qualities.

The habit of the man or woman of forty dressing with the aim of trying to appear
much younger, and affecting mannerisms of youth; thereby inspiring ridicule by
both friends and strangers.

THE FEAR OF DEATH

To some this is the cruelest of all the basic fears. The reason is obvious. The
terrible pangs of fear associated with the thought of death, in the majority of cas-
es, may be charged directly to religious fanaticism. So-called "heathen" are less
afraid of death than the more "civilized." For hundreds of millions of years man
has been asking the still unanswered questions, "whence" and "whither."

Where did I come from, and where am I going? During the darker ages of the
past, the more cunning and crafty were not slow to offer the answer to these ques-
tions, FOR A PRICE. Witness, now, the major source of origin of the FEAR OF
DEATH.

"Come into my tent, embrace my faith, accept my dogmas, and I will give you a
ticket that will admit you straightaway into heaven when you die," cries a leader
of sectarianism. "Remain out of my tent," says the same leader, "and may the
devil take you and burn you throughout eternity."

ETERNITY is a long time. FIRE is a terrible thing. The thought of eternal punish-
ment, with fire, not only causes man to fear death, it often causes him to lose his
reason. It destroys interest in life and makes happiness impossible.

During my research, I reviewed a book entitled "A Catalogue of the Gods," in
which were listed the 30,000 gods which man has worshiped. Think of it! Thirty
thousand of them, represented by everything from a crawfish to a man. It is little
wonder that men have become frightened at the approach of death.

While the religious leader may not be able to provide safe conduct into heaven,
nor, by lack of such provision, allow the unfortunate to descend into hell, the pos-
sibility of the latter seems so terrible that the very thought of it lays hold of the
imagination in such a realistic way that it paralyzes reason, and sets up the fear
of death.

In truth, NO MAN KNOWS, and no man has ever known, what heaven or hell
is like, nor does any man know if either place actually exists. This very lack of

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH