Matthew Arnold, Civilization in the United States: First and Last Impressions of America.

---

[65] saying, what one says so easily, that it was a pity Grant had suffered himself to be drawn in by speculators. “Yes,” answered his friend, “it was a pity. But see how it happened, and put yourself in Grant's place. Like Grant, you may have a son to whom you are partial, and like Grant, you have no knowledge of business. Had you been, like Grant, in a position to make it worth while for a leader in business and finance to come to you, saying that your son had a quite exceptional talent for these matters, that it was a thousand pities his talent should be thrown away, ‘give him to me and I will make a man of him,’ would you not have been flattered in your parental pride, would you not have yielded? This is what happened to Grant, and all his financial misfortunes flowed from hence.” I listened, and could not deny that most probably I should have been flattered to my ruin, as Grant was.

Grant's Memoirs are a mine of interesting things; I have but scratched the surface and presented a few samples. When I began, I did not know that the book had been reprinted in England; I find that it has,¹ and that its circulation here, though trifling indeed compared to that in America, has been larger than I supposed.