That general perceptive faculty, or perceptive capacity, which is the outcome of years of self-expression on many sides of one's being, has so much in common with the _tact_ of the man of society, that the epithet _tactful_ may perhaps be applied to it.

The larger, like the lesser, faculty is compounded, partly of sympathetic insight into latent possibilities, and partly of a delicate sense for _nuances_ of all kinds.

But even this formula does less than justice to its complex nature.

Generated as it is by a life of many-sided self-expression, it reflects its origin in its internal constitution.
Many elements of thought and feeling have woven themselves into it; and it is ready to take a colour from each new environment or even from each new situation.

It can become emotional, for example, when the matter in hand appeals, in any sort or degree, to the emotions; and there are occasions when its latent sense of humour becomes an invaluable antidote to that over-seriousness which so often leads men astray.