Note 944 — Chapter XXXIII · STALWART AND HALF-BREED 1880
Reading edition
"I do not think he [Arthur] knows anything. He can quote a verse of poetry, or a page from Dickens and Thackeray, but these are only leaves springing from a root out of dry ground. His vital forces are not fed, and very soon he has given out his all." Mrs. James G. Blaine, Letters (February 21, 1882), Vol. 1, p. 309.