What kind of things are the objects of fear, and how those that are terrified are affected, will be evident from what follows. Let fear, therefore, be a certain pain or perturbation arising from the imagination of some future evil, which is either of a destructive nature, or attended with molestation. For not all evils are the objects of fear; such for instance, as injustice or slowness; but such as are capable of producing great molestation or destruction; and these, when they are not remote, but seem to be near, so as to be imminent. For things which are very remote are not the objects of fear; since all men know that they shall die, yet because death is not near, they pay no attention to it. If, however, fear is this, it is necessary that such things should be terrible as appear to possess a great power of destroying, or are productive of such harm as is attended with great molestation. Hence, also, the indications of things of this kind are terrible; for the object of fear seems to be near. For danger is this, viz. the approximation of that which is terrible. Things of this kind, however, are the enmity and anger of those who are able to effect something; for it is evident that they are both willing and able; so that they are near to acting what their enmity and anger may suggest. Injustice, also, when it possesses power is the object of fear; for the unjust man is unjust from deliberate choice. Virtue, likewise, when insulted and possessing power is to be feared; for it is evident that vengeance, when it is insulted, is always the object of its deliberate choice; but now it possesses power. The fear, also, of those who are able to effect something is the object of terror; for such a one must necessarily be in preparation for that which he dreads. Since, however, the multitude are depraved, are vanquished by gain, and are timid in dangers, to be in the power of another person is a thing for the most part to be feared. Hence, those who have been eye witnesses of any dreadful deed that has been perpetrated, are to be feared, lest they should divulge it, or desert him by whom it was committed. Those, likewise, who are able to do an injury, are always to be feared by those who are capable of being injured; for men for the most part act unjustly when they are able. Those also are to be feared who either have suffered an injury, or think that they have; for they always watch for an opportunity of retaliating. Those too are to be dreaded who would do an injury if they had the power; for they are afraid of retaliation; and it was supposed that a thing of this kind is the object of dread. Those, likewise, are to be feared who are competitors for the same things, and which both cannot at one and the same time possess; for between men of this description there is always hostility. Those also who are objects of dread to more powerful men, are to be feared by us; for they are more able to injure us than they are to injure the more powerful. For the same reason those persons are to be feared who are dreaded by men more powerful than themselves; and also those who have destroyed men superior to themselves in power; and those who have attacked men inferior to themselves; for either they are now to be dreaded, or when their power is increased. Among those that have been injured, likewise, and among enemies and opponents, such as are to be dreaded, are not those that are hasty and choleric, and who speak their mind freely, but those that are mild, who dissemble, and are crafty; for what they are machinating is obscure, or nearly so; and hence their designs are never manifest, because they are remote from observation. With respect however to every thing that is dreadful, such things are more to be feared, the errors pertaining to which cannot be corrected; but it is either wholly impossible to correct them, or they cannot be corrected by those that have committed them, but by their adversaries. Those things also are to be feared for which there is no help, or in which assistance cannot easily be obtained. And in short those things are to be feared which when they do or shall happen to others, are lamentable in their consequences. With respect to things which are to be feared, and which are dreaded by men, these, as I may say, are nearly the greatest. Let us now show the manner in which men are affected when they are afraid. If, therefore, fear is attended with the expectation of suffering some destructive evil, it is evident that no one is afraid who thinks that he shall not suffer any evil, and that no one dreads those things which he does not think he shall suffer, or those persons through whom he does not imagine he shall suffer, nor then when he does not suspect any evil to be imminent. Hence, it is necessary that those persons should be afraid who imagine they shall suffer some evil, and from such persons, and in such things, and at such a time. Neither, however, those who are in very prosperous circumstances, and appear to be so to themselves, imagine they shall suffer any evil; (on which account such men are insolent, neglectful and audacious; and riches, strength, a multitude of friends, and power, produce such men) nor those who think that they have now suffered dreadfully, and whose hopes with respect to futurity are extinct, as is the case with those who are led to capital punishment. But it is necessary where there is fear that there should be some hope of safety, and of escaping the evils which occasion their anxiety; of which this is an indication, that fear makes men disposed to receive counsel, though no one consults about things that are hopeless. Hence, when it is necessary that the orator should excite fear in his auditors, he must show them that they are such persons as may suffer many evils, because others greater than them have suffered them. He must also show that men similar to themselves suffer or have suffered many evils, from those through whom they did not expect to suffer, and that they have suffered these evils and then when they did not imagine they should.
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