to the word _touch_, and a person who has good tact is really one who
can touch people gently, carefully, kindly, in all the relations of
life. In the animal creation no creature has more perfect tact than a
well-bred kindly-treated household cat. You may have seen one of these
enter a room where perhaps a circle of people were seated around a stove
or open fire. Puss wants her warm place in front of the fire or stove,
but she does not brusquely and rudely push her way there. No. She
glides gently, purringly around the circle, rubs caressingly against
this one and that, as though gently saying, "By your leave"; and when
finally she reaches the desired spot, she lays herself down so
gracefully and quietly and curls herself up so deftly that to witness
the act really affords pleasure to the observer. A creature of less tact
and grace would only appear obtrusive and offend and antagonize the
company, and probably rightfully receive reproof and be ejected from the
room.

And so I would wish to see you and all young people cultivate tact;
study how to speak and act so as to touch gently all with whom you are
associated. Behind the best tact lies the wish to be kind and to make
people comfortable and happy, to avoid wounding and irritating; and so
it is true that the basis of true tact is, after all, the moral
sentiment.

The young person who would cultivate tact in speech and manners will
carefully guard against obtrusiveness. This is a defect in the manners
of so many people, both young and old, and includes such a multitude of
things, that it is worth while to particularize a little upon it.
Quietness, repose, order, are distinguishing marks of cultivated social
life everywhere, and to people who are habituated to these conditions of
life it is painful to have incongruous or inappropriate acts or sounds