Year: 1869




49,


GREAT is the power of sulkiness For
tunately for the world, it rarely exists in
its highest and most concentrated form,
for, if united to real intellectual or moral
force, it would be despotism so thorough
as to be injurious t. the general welfare of
humanity. But in q less and more ignoble
form it is not uncommon, and the dead
weight and steady, ch hoking pressure which
mankind endure in consequence go to
make up an almost intolerable grievance
There are people who have the gift of be-
ing sulky for an indefinite length of time
and assert that they act thus on principle !;
but 1t is almost invariably found that the
principle harmonizes with the nature, for
to tempers that are short and sweet, hot,
inconsistent, or quickly placable, and any
of these are liable to be suddenly vexed
for an hour or two,-it is always diff
ficuity to sulk. 1t is bit of acting, and
not reality, even when carried out, and
the assumption of it is felt to be burden
too heavy to be borne


The capacity for steady, solid, concen-
trated sulkiness is mighty power to him
who possesses it; 1t implies many curious
and varied accomplishments and gifts,
among others that of the complete mastery
Of the five senses. It is for man to be
blind when it is desired that he should
open his eyes, dumb whenever words
would be acceptable, deaf to all allure
ments or submission, insensible to every
effort at conciliation. It can create gloom,
and, having created it, it can perpetuate
and deepen it until it becomes a
clinging atmosphere as unwholesome as
a malaria. 1t comprehends an abso-
lutte control over the facial muscles,
- that no softness or sign Of
yielding, not ripple of smile or an ex-
preston of pleasure, may replace even
for moment the sullen apathy or illu-
mine the habitual scowl of the confirmed
sulker. In word, it is the faculty of
stimulation to such a degree that person
shall appear to be blind, deaf, dumb, stu
pid, paralyzed. ill, or dead, whenever and
for as long as he chooses. Mr.. Helps has
truly said, "Unreason always governs
Nothing prevents your having your own
way so much as being at all amenable to
reason" And sulkiness neither gives rea-
sons nor listens to them. The sulky being
sometimes wears a depressed, spIritless,
and utterly detected appearance, as though
crushed and heartbroken by long -contin-
ued oppression sometimes heavy, dis
pleased, dragging step, and black and
lowering brow are the chief signs which
indicate the disturbance within, and the
form of the vengeance which is to be
taken in respect of it. The latter is the
masculine type; the former is, properly
speaking, feminine. Mr.. N. p Willis, in
one of his earlier volumes, has clever
little tale describing the power of an i" in
jured look" By virtue Of it young
American lady contrived to persuade a
whole house full of boarders to regard
her as martyr, and to speak the worst
and think the worst they could of her
husband; and all this, without utter
ing one word herself, was produced
solely by the "ipjured look" And if there
Is an injured look" there is also such
thing as "dumb devil"; if the power
of the one is great, the provocation in
duced by the latter is unutterable. 1t is a
curious, and to. some will appear an un-
accountable circumstance thatin sulkiness
a woman is more often possessed with q
dumb devil than is man.


Sulkiness is visible even in the nursery,
where it exists, so 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 in
strument with'Which 20 punish his play
mates. 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 amiable disposition. But
boys and girls soon learn to estimate the
power of sulkiness, either by practice or
endurance, and large school is the best
check on despotism of this kind. Sulki-
ness is not tyranny which can be safely
exercised in society at large, and it is com
monty reserved for private or home ex-
hibition. The smaller the circle the more
concentrated its force; in family, in
house, in one room, the power of sulkiness
oppresses, searches, and pervades every
corner of it. In lOve-making sulkiness is
a deplOrable blunder. Smile or strike, or
smile and strike, too, if that seems more
advisable; but no good ever follows sui
len enmity, which chills, disconcerts, and
often actually destroys love. Even that
simulated sulkiness, that toothless ven
geance, which consists in pouting cold
nesss, is an experiment full of danger, and
in the worst possible TASTE But if between
lovers it is blunder, in married life it is
simply the greatest madness of which
human being can be guilty. There they
are man and women yoked together like
goats, and as the countryman Justly
observed, "that's been trouble to more
than goats" and if either of them
is endowed with the faculty of persistent
sulkiness, one shudders to think of the,
life the other one may be made to lead.
1t might be reasonably urged as cause
for judicial separation, possibly even for
divorce, since the practice of quietly press.
ing the spirit and life out of human be-
ing, no matter how many years the opera
tion spreads over, is not one that ought to
be permitted in a Christian country: vac
victis |" the weak go to the wall, and too
often the weak are the pleasantest and
most lovable of earth's creatures.


Sometimes person is seen to exhibit
something which resembles and yet is not
suIks. 1t is silent moodiness of manner
arising from sense of failure, mortifica-
ton, or secret encouragement and vexa-
tionswhich he cannot get over all at once.
1t is often seen in youth, but in reality the
man is struggling with his infrmity, and
a kind word or friendly overture will al
most always float him over the difficulty.
But genuine sulkiness is essentially pre-
mediiated and of forethought it is also
vindictive, sometimes even malignant, in
Its nature, and if much INDUCED in causes
the manners to be habitually morose, and
the face and person acquire heavy, sod
den appearance as of substance too long
stepped in unwholesome juices. Dragging
the feet along the floor and slamming the
doors of the house for weeks and months
together are vulgar and ignoble but
neither uncommon nor expressive modes
of sulking. We all know of other ways