Bushnell, and perhaps to a lesser degree with his daughter, but it seemed to have a spiritual quality besides.
She not only resembled her father in this respect, but also in the fact that she was accustomed to think for herself. One meets only now and then one whose opinion on any book or person or event excites any interest, for the reason that the opinion is usually borrowed from somebody else, and in these days commonly from the newspapers. Miss Bushnell thought out things for herself, and consequently whatever she said had the merit of originality and individuality; and, after all, whatever of value anyone's talk or writing has, apart from its being a matter of information, depends upon the personal quality.
Another trait of Miss Bushnell was her quickness of mind. I have known but two or three other persons whose mental process was so rapid, whose perceptions were so keen, and whose power of assimilation was so ready. In conversation she seemed to apprehend what her companion was expressing by a sort of intuition, and to grasp the whole before the sentence was finished, so that her reply always came with lightning-like rapidity. This gave her tremendous power of repartee, and a directness and finish to her wit that was very remarkable. Miss Bushnell also had a very just mind. I speak of this rather as an intellectual than a moral quality, for it made her see things as they are, and real perspicacity is justness.
Added to this purely intellectual quality she had also the sympathetic gift of humor, developed rather highly in the direction of ability to see the incongruous and ridiculous side of things; a power which gave great keenness to her remarks, but always ended in merriment
vi
