6-18 eBook - pdf - Sense and Sensibility: Supplemental Reading for Lesson XVIII. - McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader (revised edition)

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XVIII. TACT AND TALENT.

Talent is something, but tact is everything. Talent is serious, sober,
grave, and respectable: tact is all that, and more too. It is not a sixth
sense, but it is the life of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick
ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the
interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the
remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places, and at all times; it
is useful in solitude, for it shows a man into the world; it is useful in
society, for it shows him his way through the world.

Talent 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 will make him respected; talent is wealth, tact is ready money. For
all the practical purposes, tact carries it against talent ten to one.

Take them to the theater, and put them against each other on the stage,
and talent shall produce you a tragedy that shall scarcely live long
enough to be condemned, while tact keeps the house in a roar, night after
night, with its successful farces. There is no want of dramatic talent,
there is no want of dramatic tact; but they are seldom together: so we
have successful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable pieces
which are not successful.

Take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned curls at each other
in legal rivalry; talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first at its
journey's end. Talent has many a compliment from the bench, but tact
touches fees. Talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster,
tact arouses astonishment that it gets on so fast. And the secret is, that
it has no weight to carry; it makes no false steps; it hits the right nail
on the head; it loses no time; it takes all hints; and, by keeping its eye
on the weathercock, is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows.

Take them into the church: talent has always something worth hearing, tact
is sure of abundance of hearers; talent may obtain a living, tact will
make one; talent gets a good name, tact a great one; talent convinces,
tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact gains honor from
the profession.

Take them to court: talent feels its weight, tact finds its way; talent
commands, tact is obeyed; talent is honored with approbation, and tact is
blessed by preferment. Place them in the senate: talent has the ear of the
house, but tact wins its heart, and has its votes; talent is fit for
employment, but tact is fitted for it. It has a knack of slipping into
place with a sweet silence and glibness of movement, as a billiard ball
insinuates itself into the pocket.

It seems to know everything, without learning anything. It has served an
extemporary apprenticeship; it wants no drilling; it never ranks in the
awkward squad; it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts on
no look of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profundity, but plays with
the details of place as dexterously as a well-taught hand flourishes over
the keys of the pianoforte. It has all the air of commonplace, and all the
force and power of genius.