Middletown transcript., 1917-11-03

ClOuuDuISl COlucS. Alu lAc Suuucu SUI
try atmosphere, and that strange hush,
with the air of the room surcharged
with electricity. may all have come
in moment with not the slightest real
justification. 1t is the self-torture of
love.
To morbid jealousy civility, just Of
the ordinary type, becomes filtration;
Indifference, disguised feelings; good
spirits. conscience masking a wrong;
silence, thinking of some one else-all
is translated by the cipher code of
jealousy. Jealousy always plays with
loaded dice-the cast Is always fore
ordained. Jealousy does not require
cause, it is satisfied with an Oppor-
tunity. 1t may be inspired by what one
does or does not do, what one thought
or did not think, what one said or did
not say; it may be what one might
have. could have or should have done
or said or left undone. Jealousy con-
jugates in all moods and lenses.
To this morbid Jealousy explanations
mean nothing but aggravation or
change of a base of attMck. The most
tactfully delivered explanation is often
dexterously caught, and with whisk
Of the vocabulary is quickly trans
formed into foaming whipped-cream
conviction on some other phase, while
the innocent sufferer, in dazed way,
wonders how it was done. Vesuvius
in it's eruptions, Is slow, snail-like in
activity compared with the explosions
Of this jealousy. Unlike cigar smoking.
jealousy Is not one-sex speciality.
This morbid jealousy is always unrea'
soning and unreasonable. Its misin-
depreciation of word, a motion or
glance may throw into eclipse the loyal
unselfish devotion of a life, and the one
who suffers innocently in this tempest
must bow the head in helplessness,
realizing that words of protest would
count no more than attempting to lead
a tornado to change its itinerary.
Jealousy STILES faith, which is tho
soul of love. 1t is emotional suicide.
1t is a peculiar form of fear which
seeks constantly to discover what 1T
does not want to fiud. Jealousy is
the chloroform of confidence. 1t re-
quires faith to keep faith, trust to re'
tain trust, love to cherish love.
Jealousy blights spOntaneity and the
free expression of ones thought; one
soon consigns one subject after an
other to the quarantine Of the un-
spoken. One involuntarily sterilizes
ones conversation, emitting simple lit
tie incidents and references nothing in
themselves but which experience has
shown carry storm-signals, so that one
involuntarily picks ones way carefully
in talking like person getting up at
night in a dark, chairsprinkled room.
How Cupid must moan when he finds
married people grown tactful and
polite with each other. The delight
full free interchange of thought can
exist only as love and trust make Blue
beard chambers of interdicted subjects
unnecessary and impossible in conver-
sation. We should guard carefully
against closing up any room of con-
fidence in the mind and heart of one
we love.
There is pathos in this m9rbid jeal'
Ousy, for innocence of the object OF
the feeling can prevent it. 1t is like
one Of those concave or convex mirrors
that distort whatever passes before
them. This unreasonable jealousy is
hard on two peOple-the subject and
the object. Its presence in the home
means a problem for two. For one it
means the overcoming of a morbid sus.
picion and the other somehow to keep
the sacred flame Of love burning
despite the suspicion. There is always
q benumbing, paralyzing sense of help,
lessness and of hOpelessness in resting
under cruel, unjust charge more
awful when it is made by one who
should be most ready Of all the world
to be convinced of the innocence of the
accused.
Jealousy is a disease that can be
cured only by the subject, not by any
one else in all the world. No mat,
ter how gentle, kind, forbearing, for
giving and forgetting the object of it
may be, this in itself will not cure the
attacks. The subject whose heart la
thus swayed by fierce gales Of jealousy
must first awaken to the folly Of 1t,
the injustice of it, must be conscious
of the trail of bitterness and unhap.
piness it brings to both, must realize
the cruel continued assault on the toll
erance, love, loyalty and patience Of
the other, and when the next attack
comes, seek by strength of will, by
force of character, by cOnsecrated self
control and by every help of highest
wisdom to kill the feeling.
Jealousy must be fought as one
would battle against pestilence that
threatens the safety Of town or q
county. It is not sufficient conquest
merely to hold back the expressions
Of the jealousy; the continuous re-
preston simply defers the explosion
and makes the next outbreak more dis,
astrous. Jealousy must be killed in
the thought In the mind, the battle.
ground of the soul, must the fight OF
determination be waged. In the
thought must the jealousy be neutral
lied by faith, conquered by justice,
and transformed by trustful love into
a restful abiding confidence that only
absolute proof and certainty of just
cause can ever reawaken.
Quality of knowledge Counts.