Word: tact
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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...German with penetration and tact in matters of literary criticism will own that the principle deficiency of German poetry is in style; that for style, in the highest sense, it shows but little feeling. Take the eminent masters of style, the poets who best give the idea of what the peculiar power which lies in style is,- Pindar, Virgil, Dante, Milton. An example of the peculiar effect which these poets produce, you can hardly give from German poetry. Examples enough you can give from German poetry of the effect produced by genius, thought, and feeling expressing themselves in clear language...
...productions of the Italians; but there will be a stamp of perfectness and inimitableness about it in the literatures where it is native, which it will not have in the literatures where it not native. A rough-and-ready critic easily credits the Germans with the Celtic fineness of tact, the Celtic nearness to Nature and her secret; but do the strokes in the German's picture of nature ever have the indefinable delicacy of charm, and perfection of the Celt's touch...
...power of mind, of a poet's constructive ability, but the very best of them cannot render for us that which is the characteristic of all great and individual writing, namely, Style, any more than a plaster cast can reproduce a marble statue. Shakespeare, you recollect, with that inevitable tact in the choice of epithets which gives to every careless phrase of his an esoteric as well as exoteric meaning, makes Quince exclaim, when he sees Bottom with the ass's head on his shoulders,- "Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee, thou art translated...
...good news-gatherer to be a good reporter. Ability to put his news in presentable form will count, but not for nearly so much as the ability to get the news. A successful reporter ought to have all of these qualities, - health, temperance, observation, strong memory, accuracy, pluck, and tact. Health is indispensable for the hard, irregular, and worried life. Without temperance, a reporter never can inspire his superior with confidence. To gather his news he must have observation, that is plain; there are circumstances when a strong memory is the only means for retaining it, and that will become...
...Lamont then discussed, also in detail, the advantages a college education brings for such work. Physical development is better in college than out of it, all of the courses tend to strengthen a man's observation, memory, accuracy, while his social experience ought to equip him with considerable tact...