Our object in writing this book is to endeavour to show to persons who may contemplate trying their hand at Stock Exchange speculation, the improbability of their hopes being realized. Much mischief and trouble would be avoided, and a deal of money saved, if, before entering upon such a dangerous career under the most favorable circumstances as that of a speculator, a study were made of the difficulties such an occupation involves, and also of the chances against the operator, considered as one individual _versus_ the Stock markets. It is melancholy to think of the vast sums of money that are invested in the most serious sense of the word, annually by Stock Exchange speculators in the purchase of a sorrowful experience. It seems to be in the nature of things, that numbers of people must come to grief in their early struggles, through an obstinate determination to trust complacently in their own ingenuity, in preference to profiting by the experience of others. A mountain climber who disclaims the aid of a guide, and is subsequently fished out of a crevasse, can expect no other epitaph, even from his friends, than that he has paid the deserved penalty of extreme temerity and folly. There are probably many guides who can ensure a safe passage over most mountain defiles, but he would be a bold man who guaranteed to pilot a young speculator through the Stock markets, and bring him out to a certainty with a profit. If a speculator asks the advice of what we will term “an old hand,” and it is in his interests to tell him what he really thinks, he will say: “Leave it alone.” Why so many people will never be convinced except by their own personal experience is, that they cannot believe what others say of things that are hidden. “Hereof experience hath informed reason, and time hath made those things apparent which were hidden,” says Sir W. Raleigh. “But apt the mind or fancy is to rove Uncheck’d, and of her roving is no end, Till warn’d, or by experience taught, she learns That not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and subtle, but to know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime of wisdom,” says Milton; and “But if you’ll prosper, mark what I advise, Whom age and long experience render wise,” says Pope. Stock Exchange speculation is very deceitful to the eye, and also to the ear. In some respects its associations are like those of a morass, under whose smooth and inviting surface are hidden the remains of unwary travellers. Those who are new to the business see only the glittering surface, and hear only of the fortunes made by stock brokers. People seldom tell of their losses.