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Show 270 HELPLESSNESS : CnAP. X!. " not stop him." Shrugging the shou~ders ~ikewise ~xpresses patience, or the absence of any Intention to resist. Hence the muscles which raise the shoulders are sometimes called, as I have been informed by an artist, "the " patience muscles.'' Shy lock the Jew, says, "Signor Antonio, many a time and oft In the Rialto have you rated me About my monies and usances; Still have I borne it with a patient shrug." lt!lerchant of Venice, act i. sc. 3. Sir C. Bell has given 14 a life-like figure of a man, who is shrinking back from some terrible danger, and is on the point of screaming out i~ abject terror. He ~s represented with his shoulders hfted up ~lmost to Ins ears; and this at once declares that there IS no thought of resistance. As shrugging the shoulders generally impl.ies '' .r " cannot do this or that," so by a slight change, It sometimes implies " I won't do. it." The movement then expresses a dogged determination not to act. Olmsted describes 15 an Indian in Texas as giving a great shrug to his shoulders, when he was informed that a party of men were Germans and not Americans, t~us expressing that he would have nothing to do w1th them. Sulky and obstinate children may be see:1 with both their shoulders raised high up; but tins movement is not associated with the others which generally accompany a true shrug. An excellent ob· server 16 in describing a young man who was determined not to yield to his father's desire, says, "He "thrust his hands deep down into his pockets, and '' set up his shoulders to his ears, which was a good 14 'Anatomy of Expression,' p. 166. u ' Journey through Texas,' p. 352. u; Mrs. Oliphant,' The Brownlows,' vol. ii. p. 20(), CHAP. XJ. SHRUGGING THE SHOULDER'. 271 " warning that, come right or wrong, this rock should " fly from its firm ba e a soon as Jack would; an l " that any remonstrance on th . ubject was purely '' futile:" As soon a the son got his own way, he "put his shoulder into their natural position." Resignation i sometimes shown by the open hand · being placed, one over the other, on the low r part of the body. I should not have thought this little g sture worth ev n a passing notice, had not Dr. vV. Ogle r - marked to me that he had two or three times obs rved it in patients who were preparing for operation under chloroform. They exhibited no great fear, but seemed to declare by this posture of their hands, that they had made up their minds, and were resigned to the inevitable. We may now inquire why men in all parts of the world when they feel,-whether or not they wi h to show this feeling,-that they cannot or will not do something, or will not resist something if done by another, shrug their shoulders, at the same time often bending in their elbows, showing the palms of their · lw,nds with extended fingers, oft n throwing their heads a li~tle on one side, raising their eyebrows, and opening their mouths. These states of the mind are eith r simply passive, or show a determination not to act. None of the above movements are of the least service. The expla~ation lies, I cannot doubt, in the principle of unconscious antithesis. This principle here seems to come into p~ay as clearly as in the ca. e of a dog, wh~>, when feehng savage, puts hims If in the proper atti~ude for. attacking and for making himself appear ternble to Ins enemy; but as soon as he feels affectionate throws his. w~1ole body into a directly opposite attitude: though this 1s of no direct use to him. Let it be obserYcd how au indignant man, who resents, |