There are not many countries in which society may be said to be settled down to the industrial pursuits in which so many men catch the tide of fortune, and are swept onward by its stream to the havens of their ambition, as in the United States. In the town where I was located while penning my notes for this chapter, large numbers of both the leading merchants and manufacturers are transformed workingmen, who, by their own talents and industry, coupled with favourable circumstances of time and place, have attained to high social positions. I know numbers of men by repute who have acquired princely fortunes after having commenced their race in life under anything but what the generality of men would call favourable circumstances. Two leading merchants in New York have been pointed out to me who commenced the battle of life with no other arms but those which Nature gave them. I should judge from their names that they are of Scotch descent, though they emigrated from the north of Ireland, and I have no doubt that the faculty which induces a North Briton to think twice before he speaks or acts once, has contributed in no small degree to their success.