A good deal of the success of manner consists in tact, and it is
because women, on the whole, have greater tact than men, that they
prove its most influential teachers. They have more self-
restraint than men, and are naturally more gracious and polite.
They possess an intuitive quickness and readiness of action, have
a keener insight into character, and exhibit greater
discrimination and address. In matters of social detail, aptness
and dexterity come to them like nature; and hence well-mannered
men usually receive their best culture by mixing in the society of
gentle and adroit women.
Tact is an intuitive art of manner, which carries one through a
difficulty better than either talent or knowledge. "Talent," says
a public writer, "is power: tact is skill. Talent is weight: tact
is momentum. Talent knows what to do: tact knows how to do it.
Talent makes a man respectable: tact makes him respected. Talent
is wealth: tact is ready-money."
The difference between a man of quick tact and of no tact whatever
was exemplified in an interview which once took place between Lord
Palmerston and Mr. Behnes, the sculptor. At the last sitting
which Lord Palmerston gave him, Behnes opened the conversation
with--"Any news, my Lord, from France? How do we stand with
Louis Napoleon?" The Foreign Secretary raised his eyebrows for an
instant, and quietly replied, "Really, Mr.
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