National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1869-10-01
The SuiEs 1ndlvzed.

a depressed, splritless, and utterly
detected appearance, as though
crushed and heartbrokel by long
continued oppression sometimes a
heavy, displeased, dragging step,
and a black and lowering brow, are
the chief signs which indicate the
disturbance within, and the form of
vengence which is to be taken in
respect of it. The latter is the
masculine type; the former is,prop-
erly speaking, feminine. Mr.. n. =.
Willis, in one of his earlier volumes,
has a clever little tale describing the
power of an injured look By vir-
tue of it young American lady
c0ntrived to persuade a whole house
full of bOarders to regard her as a
martyr, and to speak the worst, and
to think the worst of, her husband !;
and all this, without uttering a word
herself, was produced soley by the
injured look And if there is an
injured look there is also such a
thing as dumb devil : if the pow
er of the one is great, the prOvoca-
tion induced by the latter is unutter
able. 1t is curious.and to some will
appear an unaccOutable circum-
tance, that in SulkineSS woman is
more often possessed of a dumb
devil than is a man. SulkiGess is
visible even in the nursery, where it
exists, so as to speak, in the form of
a bud ; but it is merely an outbreak
of bad temper.for at that age child
has not learned the method of using
it as an instrument with which to
punish his playmatcs. And the
wisest way is to leave it entirely
unnoticed, 'efface' the offender,as the
French say, until there is an obvious
return to more amible disposition.
But boys and girls soon learn to es-
innate the power of sulkness either
by practice or endurance, and a
large school is the best check on a
despCtism or this kind. Sulkiness
is not tyranny which can be cxer.
cised in society at large, and it is
commonly reserved toI private or
home exhibition. The smaller the
circle the more concentrated its
force; in family,in a house, in one
room, the power of sulkiness oppres
ses, and prevades every corner of it,
In love making, g,suIkiness is Il dcplo
rable blunder. Smile or strike, OF
smile and strike too, if that seems
more advisable; but no good ever
follows Sullen enmity, which chills
disconCert, and often destroys love
Even that stimulated SulkinesS, that
toothless vengence, which consists in
pOuting coldneSS, is an experiment
full of danger,and in the worst pos
sihIe taste. But if between lovers
it is a blunder, in married life it i,
the greatest madness of Which hu
man beings can he guilty. Their,
they are, man and woman yoket
together like goats, and as the COZ n
tryman justly observed, that's b' I
a trouble to more than goats ant
if either Of them is endowed will
the faculty of persistent Sulkiness
one shudders to think of the life tn,
other may be made to lead. L. NIGH
he reasonably urged as a cause fo
judicial separation, probably for di
vorce, since the practice OF quietl.
pressing the spirit and life out of
. human being, no matter ho" man
r years the operation spreads over,
? not one that ought 10 be pcrmtte
in IA Christian country 'vT vlct!s
: the weak 20 to the wall. and too ot
: ten the weak are the pleaSantest an,
, most lOyable of earthS rcatures.