The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-03-21
S LOO Per Annum.
Concerning Dull People.

A dull man can make very httfs ck
! himself; his acqusintances can make o.
him what they like; and to be discreetly
dull is to meet large portion Of the
social requirements, Very few have any
notion of the extent to which discreet
dullness is employed in society. 1t Is
never so called, but passes current as
tact, deiicacy, worldly knowledge, intel
lect, sagacity, discrimination, Difference,
nFodesty, and sundry ether nice, desirable
qualities. Who are the best liked, the
most praised, the greatest fsyorites III
general society? The famous, the gifted,
self-sacrihcing, the learned, the brilliant :
Not they The famous are enVied the
gifted are criticised. the selfsacFifcinga are
misiudged; the learned are pronounced
wearisome the brilliant excite opPosi-
ton. As q rule, it is the disereotly dull
who carry off and wear the social laH-
els. They sre not envied or criticised or
misiudged; they are not wearisome
they are not opposed. Like neutral tints,
they wear well because they are ineon-
gpisuous, and tor the same reason they
are r6ssfil. They fit into other and very
different natuFes; they soften aspeTities
by diffusing a spirit of commonplace,
which is believed to be compound OF
gentleness and harmony; they keep down
intensity and aggression by giving these
nothing to act upon, by negatively de-
stfoyiDg their motive for exercise. Hav-
ing 10 individuality of their OVID
they are apt 70 restrain in others
the individuality which by active
assertion hurts the symmetry and
conformity essential to Well-regulsted
circles.
Even when dulIness is without discre-
- ~
society. The majority of persons must
be dull by the economy of nature. Dull
ness is to society whst background is to
a picture; paradoxical as il may seem,
it imparts tone and character for the
whole; sets off the figures, necessarily
few, occupying the foreground, and
shows them to advantage. Consequently,
people who count themselves clever
among these are inevitably many of the
dull. and not a few of the dullest-can
not find fault with those they consider
less clever, because to these they
eve both their eminenee and Teputa-
tion, Indeed, the clever rarely offer
any open objection to the dull. They
may have lofty sort of pity for them
but they are apt to be patient and chari-
table with them, from the absence of any
feeling of jealOsy or Tiyaly, and from
secret consciousness that the dull are
their desirable foils,
Our inextinguishable self-lOve, our
irreprecsible egotism, prevents any and
every one of us from thinking that we
are, or can be, dull. We may not sup
pose ourselves TO be brilliant or clever
exactly but we are pretty certain to
hold the opinion that dullness of
any kind does not belong to ns,
and 10 be comforted as TO our per
sCnaIity by some reason, theory, or
1 illusion evolved from within. But
/ the recognition of dullness as 3 social
scent and really benef cient principle
has a tendency to render us tolerant and
catholic, and without tolerance and
catholicism, society, Notwithstanding
pretensions, can never be what it should.
Such recognition, too, prevents US from
/ inordinate ambition, from feyerish desire
to scintillate, from oyer-indulgeDCe Of
! eg0tism. in society, which are so often its
bane. Remembering that the dull have
their place, and serve their purpose, we
can more easily practice the self-restraint
and moderation which social duty should
enjoin. Having, with such Temem-
! brance, less fear OF being regarded dull oHT-
selves, we shall be more apt TO cultivate
} the repose in which our society is often
50 sadly deficient. New York Times.