The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-02-12

Many people are so ignorant of all th
coaUeaances and proprieties of life tina
they have no other idea Of tact than a
a species of hypocrisy, aud never fail
on opportunity, to characterize it as such
But to the mind capable OF the least dis
elimination the two are as wide apart a
are the North and South Poles. FoI
| hypocrisy Is the dumb show of lying
but tact is rather a method employed t.
avoid lying. Hypocrisy says: There il
no pit here" and skips gaiiy across
| but tact, saying nothing at all about the
| pit, cries ''Ah, how pleasant it Is il
the other direction; let US 60 that way =
! Hypocrisy never hesitates at lie; tact
never allows occasion for one.
Tact is, in fact, the great lubricator
Of life it oils the machinery, smooths
away trouble, looks far ahead, perhaps,
to see it, and turns things into another
channel. But however tact avoids the
necessity of taIsehoOd, it does not sup
press the truth; it simply prevents ref
erence TO the facts it has sort Of self
respect which does not blazon its affairs
abroad it does not consider itself as
using deceit when merely keeping its
Tact has, moreover, way of sur
mounting difficulties that no other power
has. Hypocrisy, so to say, burns its
ships behind it it puts its back against
a lie and fights, but tact always keeps
its retreat OPEN and always has forces in
reserve. Tact seldom makes the assault;
it never conquers; it wins without
battle "When We would show any one
that he is mistaken, Pascal declares,
'our best course is to observe on what
side he considers the subject-for his
view of it is generally right on this side
and admit 10 him that he is right so
far. He will be satisfied with this ac
acknowledgement that he was not wrong in
his judgment, but only inadvertent in
not looking at the whole of the case.
And tact never had higher exposition.
Yet tact is as different from cunning as
it is again from falsehood. Cunning
goes about seeking devious ways; il
becomes a disease it deceives itself and
debases itself all the time that tact is
moving on serenely in a lottler atmos
phere-lottier, at any rate, since tact is
al least the child of intellect, while cum
ming is often the offspring of mere idiocy.
There is nothing more useful in fam
lily, as a cushion to every fall, buffer to
every blow, than this agreeable tact; it
always knows the right thing to say, the
exact thing to do; it knows how olitt the
pleasant hand at the very moment for
soothing rutfled plumage; 1t knows on de
batable questions how to put others into
such good humor that it can carry its
point; it turns conversation from danger
Gus approaches; ii never sees what is best
unseen; it does not answer to that which
requires scathing reply if heard at all;
it remembers names and faces; 1t has the
apropos aneCdote; if it does not go out Of
the way to fiatter, neither does ii 90 out
of the way to blame; where it cannot
praise it Is silent, and it never consents
to mOrtiiy any.
Thus tact, ii would appear, is species
of kindness, dislike to wound as well as
a desire to give pleasure; perhaps also a
species of selhshness IN its automatic
shrinking from crying, quarreling and
discomfort of any kind.
Once in a while, when some great
blunder is made that no tact ever quite
repairs, we are led to wonder what the
world would be without it. Somebody
once said that without hope the world
would be naught, for, destitute of that,
we should not perform the simplest
operations of life; we should not go out
of the door lest We should fall down
we should not lift our hand to our head
lest it should remain there. Quite as
badly off should we be without tact all
the flavor of life would be crude as some
undisguised acid there would be a
perpetual recoil among the atoms of
family and social life as of oil and water
every roughness would rasp, every sharp
thing would hit and hurt; peace, har
mony and enjoyment would be things
of no existence Certainly it must be
conceded that tact is to our nerves what
is to our morals 1t is,
thing easily cultivated its
presence is one of the sure signs of gentle |
breeding, and its absence always leads |
us to believe people sprung from clowns
for, save for the awkward exceptions
always acknowledged to prove the rule,
where people of culture and of gentle
behavior are to be found, there is tact to
be found with them.