Tact

ful in a family, as a cusmon to every fall, a buffer to every blow, than tact. It always knows the right thiny to say, the exact thing to do; it kntws liowtolift the pleasant band at tl-e very moment for smoothing rnfflí plumage; it knows on debatable questions how to put others into such good luuirour that it can cary its point; it never alludes to a forbidden subject ; it turna conversation í'rom dangerous approacb.es ; it never sees what is best unseen ; it does not answer to that which requires a scathing reply it heard at all ; it remembers ñames and faces ; it has the a propos anecdote ; if it does not go out of the way to natter, neither does it go out of the way te blame; where itcannot praise it is silent, and it never consents to mortify. Thus tact, it would appear, is a species of kindness, a dislike to wound as well as a desire to give pleasure - perhaps also a species of seUishness in its automatic shrinking from crying, quarrelling, and disconifortof any kind.