"Fearthought" is _the self-imposed or self-permitted suggestion of inferiority_. It is both a _cause_ and an _effect_ of selfishness. It is the "tap-root of evil."
"Fearthought" was coined by the author in order, if possible by suggestion, to separate from divinely ordained forethought any element of apprehension or weakness that might be masquerading under the name of forethought in the minds of the unthinking.
"Worry" is _fearthought in contradistinction to forethought_.
"Anger" is _the brutal and self-inflicting expression of disapproval_--brutal, because it is ungodly, unchristian and unaltruistic; _self-inflicting_, because the ill-effect of it reacts upon the person enangered.
There can be no "righteous anger." Disapproval there must be, because man has been endowed with the faculty of _Divine Selection_, and thereby shows a divinity denied to all other living things whose preferences are called in Science "natural selection." Disapproval in the interest of harmony--_Divine Selection_--and disapproval in the creation of discord--anger--are, the one holy, and the other unholy, uses of the faculty of selection.
There may be, then, _righteous disapproval_, but there never can be "righteous anger."
"Envy" is sometimes wrongly used to express appreciation, as, "I envy you your good fortune," but we will give it the one meaning of "anger of non-possession."
"Jealousy" is "the homage that inferiority pays to merit";[3] or, _recognition or confession of inferiority_; or, _fearthought_.
"Tap-root" is "the chief root." It is the main support of the tree, of nearly the size of the trunk, and without which the tree must fall and die. The tap-root strikes deep into the soil, while the surface-roots reach out along the surface. For example; egotism is the tree of evil, either selfishness or fearthought is the tap-root, and anger and worry in all their phases are the surface roots of the tree. The tree is known by its fruits, which are, separation, paralysis, disease, unhappiness and death.
Trouble does not really exist. Fearthought of trouble is as near as one ever gets to the condition, for the reason that whatever has come has already ceased to exist, except in the memory. The reason for so fine a distinction is made clear under the caption of "The Impotence of Pain," and is emphasized in order to place merited responsibility on fearthought. What is called "trouble," however, can be defined as _unwelcome conditions_, but, if analyzed, the chief elements of the "conditions" will be found to be _fearthought of still more unwelcome conditions_. The tap-root, then, of trouble is fearthought.