Laughter is genuine
which has in it neither the shrill, hysterical note of mere
excitement nor the hard, metallic twang of the cynic's sneer--
which rings in the honest voice of gracious good humor, which is
innocent and unsatirical. Speech is genuine which is without
silliness, affectation, or pretense. That character is genuine
which seems built by nature rather than by convention, which is
stuff of independence and of good courage. Nothing spurious,
bastard, begotten out of true wedlock of the mind; nothing
adulterated and seeming to be what it is not; nothing unreal, can
ever get place among the nobility of things genuine, natural, of
pure stock and unmistakable lineage. It is a prerogative of every
truly human being to come out from the low estate of those who
are merely gregarious and of the herd, and show his innate powers
cultivated and yet unspoiled--sound, unmixed, free from
imitation; showing that individualization without extravagance
which is genuineness.
But how? By what means is this self-liberation to be effected--
this emancipation from affection and the bondage of being like
other people? Is it open to us to choose to be genuine? I see
nothing insuperable in the way, except for those who are
hopelessly lacking in a sense of humor.
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