Poems (Bushnell)/Frances Louisa Bushnell
FRANCES LOUISA BUSHNELL
THIS collection of the occasional poems of Frances Louisa Bushnell gives the fitting opportunity for a word upon the character and work of one who was long prominent in the intellectual and social life of Hartford. The place she occupied cannot be filled, but while to those who knew her well her loss is irreparable, her memory will always have in it something of inspiration. Miss Bushnell had intellectual capacities, which would have given her a considerable place in literature if her ambition had equalled her ability, but she shrank from notoriety and seemed quite content to exercise her wit and her singular powers in the immediate circle in which she was thrown. She was a true poet; she wrote, or at least published, a very small amount of verse, yet this was of a pure and high quality. She had the delicacy of fancy and the sudden gleam of imaginative insight into the world about her that, if exercised to any extent, would have given her a high position among poets. From her father she inherited great verbal facility; words to him were things so vital that they were able to express the most subtle thought, and this power of expression, which is rare and goes only with the power of thinking clearly, always characterized Miss Bushnell's language, spoken or written. It was an intellectual gift with Dr. 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 rather than in ridicule. This means to say that her critical faculty was highly developed. She had high standards in literature as well as elsewhere, was exceedingly fastidious in her tastes, and this may partially account for the fact that she wrote so little poetry, for she would be her own severest critic in this way.
In Dr. Bushnell the notable quality was the union of intellectual and spiritual perception. This Miss Bushnell inherited, but she added to it something of the charm of her sex, the alertness, vivacity and gracefulness of mind, which made her seem to those who knew her best almost like one of Shelley's ethereal creations, a being compounded of fire and spirit. This ethereal quality, however, involved no instability, for with this lightness and grace went also great precision and justness, and a will power that was very pronounced in regard to conduct as well as control of her faculties. Her rare common-sense was also a saving quality in her intellectual brilliancy. She never surrendered her reason and could see in religion as well as in life what is essential, and what is extraneous or accidental or merely the creation of human superstition. Her spiritual perceptions were as clear as her intellectual, and she never doubted either the justice of God or the absolute love made manifest in the Redeemer of the world. I mention this because it is not always that so much humor and wit and gayety and intellectual keenness are accompanied by such high spiritual insight and real humility of spirit.
Charles Dudley Warner.