Richland beacon., 1873-04-19
Gushing.

WE all agree to consider " "ouSh" un.
worthy; "gushing people," whether in
parlors or periodicals, are accepted Oh.
| iects for satire. Now, As we have known
some decidedly gushing people in society
and in the public prints To speak of 'gush
with derisiOn. we infer that there must
be some ambiguity "a to the meaning OF
the term. IL is. perhaps. worth while To
ask, '.What is 'gush.' and in what does
its inferiority inhere:" Usually. though
not necessarily, persons who gush, adj
mire rather than criticise: but whatever
| they do, they do with proillsion. The
voice is commonly in a high key; but it
is not wrong or unworthy to admire.
"GIlsh' is not Objectionable because it is
pitched in high key. There is very
genuine and exquisite admiration. Much
in literature in which the key is high has
value and truth.
The Objectionable quality of .'gush"
Is, not that it possesses these
qualities. but that it processes
them, and possesses them not. Adj
! mirc all YOU choose you are but one lit
tie being in this bOundless universe, and
you have all outside of you to admire.
The higher your ccStacics, the deeper
your worship. the greater you are un-
questiOnably only be sure you don't lay
claim by written word. or speech or gest-
ure. TO ecstacies which you do not feel.
If you love your kind, and are human" :"
there is in the bOundlesS cXpanSe of his
tory, i'm the experiences of the people
among whom you move, sufficient OppOr-
tunity for all the sympathy" YOU can
command. Your sympathes. and appre-
Citations, and subtlctics about your friends
may be never so superfine. they may be
quite beyond the reach of plain people,
but il you are sure of their truth, YOU can
never be justly accused OF "gush." 1t is
only when you follow some loose fashion,
when you take some half-fOrmed, super
ficially-felt impression. and I'm some
mOdish way profess depth or an eleva-
ton which you do not poSSess-it is only
then that you may lie said to "gush."
Fancy, spirituality, love, JOY in the per-
ception of beauty. all these are true !:
"gush" is false. Now. it may often hap
pen that young person, or for that mat
ter an old one, may not have sufficient in
tellectual power, or sufficient depth of ex-
perience, to test the truth of any effusiOn
of the mind. George EliOtsomcwhcrc re-
marks how much easier it is to be eloquent
than to be true. Truth for the writer, es-
peciaily when-hc attempts the more am
bilious walks OF literature and endesvOrs
to be original, demands power of Intel
iect which few can commando I've writer
who processes spirituality, and believes
himself able out of his own experience to
say something which is worth the atten-
ton of men, must, of course, first, himself
believe that he is truthful. Sometimes
he is mistaken. he often is: but,
after all, the only consent which is
worth anything is the writer's own
certainty that he is right. He must
take upon himself the responsibility of be-
ing mistaken /; but i'm most of the "gllsh, :"
we see there is no such even mistaken
consent of the intellect and conscience.
Really, the writer half knows be (very
often she) is talking nonsense; if he
priced truth sufficiently, he would not
speak so. "Gush," we think, there fore,
Is often the result of feeble intellect, but
Oftener the result of . lack of dignity and
the want Of an instructive love of truth.
We doubt if many persons write "gush y
for the love of it; but people who make
living by writing, and who have at stated
times to cover so much space with ink
| even when they are capable of better
things, do too often acquire way OF
writing from the hand instead OF the head
| or the heart, and of approaching the deep.
er themes Of life with levity and insinceri.
| ty. This is the ''gush" which is utterly
Objectionable, whether it be written fol
the public or spoken in the ear of friend.
ship.-HeaJth and Home.