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TACT

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Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 5, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 6

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TACT

A very necessary and very desirable quality, if one would be useful and popular in society, is that which the little word tact defines. What is it?
It is easy to say what it is not. It is not insincerity. It is not mere policy. It is not a habit of hollow politeness. It is not a varnish of compliment which is always at hand to soothe hurt sensibilities. It is not fashionable conventionality, nor superficial elegance. So much for the negative.
Now for the affirmative. It is a delicate and suitable gift, almost like a sixth sense, which enables its possessor to grasp a situation, and say and do the best thing, in the best manner, at the right moment. It never rushes in too soon, nor arrives on the ground too late. It is never off guard. It never offends by that bluntness which is allied to rudeness. It is not brusque nor harsh. It never gives a cold “Thank you” for a kind wish, nor turns its cheek to be kissed when a friend offers the lips. It is quick, sensitive, tender, merry, affectionate and sympathetic. It does not tell blithe stories to those who mourn, and weary aching hearts by laughter and frolic. It does not carry a tearful face to the wedding, nor prophesy sad things over the baby’s cradle.
The woman who has tact may have no beauty, no grace, no learning and no wealth, but she will be charming, and everybody will own her charm. Let her enter what company she may, all will be glad to see her. Let her entertain guests, and they will go away declaring her praises. She will, as with a diviner’s wand, call forth the best that is in everybody, and all will feel happier for her influence.
Do not think that the person who has tact is not a person of truth. The finest tact cannot exist except in the soul and in the manner of one who is true and pure and tender, through and through.
Do not fancy, either, that it is a gift of nature and not a trait which can be cultivated. It is susceptible of culture, as almost all good and noble things are. If you are deficient in it, set to work at once to see how and why, and to look for a remedy. Remember that the people noted for tact—real, beautiful, unerring tact—are always unselfish people. They are not set upon having their own rights first of all. They are not touchy. They are not haughty, and given to cherishing their own dignity. They are not easily affronted. They do not alienate hearts which love them by suspicions and jealousies and envies and misunderstandings.
The tact which blossoms into the loveliest living has its root at the Cross. Every day the dews of Heaven water it. Every day God’s sunbeams fall on it, and it grows like a flower in the light of Heaven.
—Christian at Work.