488

CONCLUSION.

days, closes upon them and completes their melancholy lot. Wefrequently meet with cases of this description.

There are few persons, in any of the situations which havebeen described, who, when the subject is brought before themand understood, must not be desirous of appropriating some smallpart of their present emoluments or profits, not only with a viewto secure a suitable provision for their families at their decease,but likewise for their own satisfaction, to render their own liveseasy and comfortable under the pleasing reflection, that they haveguarded against one of the great evils of a premature death.

This may well be illustrated by an example. A man is in pos-session of an income which enables him to support his family,but this income will cease with his life. He is unwilling that thesubsistence of his wife and children shall depend on an event souncertain as life, and is anxious to raise a fund that will providefor their relief upon its failure, say $5,000 ; but his only meansof raising this fund is by savings from his income. From this,he cannot spare more than $125 a year, the usual premium on theinsurance of $5,000. Upon such scanty means, it is probablethat he will despair of accumulating the desired sum, and, there-fore, will expend that which he might save, in present indulgences.Yet, in fact, in about twenty-one years, that annual saving, im-proved at compound interest, would realize $5,000 ; and such anumber of years, a young man has an equal prospect of living.This is incontrovertible, as a matter of calculation. Still, inpractice, it must be confessed, that the case is but too discourag-ing. For, first, he will find it extremely difficult to invest thesmall receipts of interest immediately as they arise, so as to givethem the effect of compound interest. And again, he has anequal chance of not living to complete his design. But his ob-ject, otherwise so distant and uncertain, is, to all practical pur-poses, accomplished, from the moment he effects a life-insuranceupon this plan.

It must appear manifest, to all who will examine and considerthe subject, that if this is not the best, it is at least one of thebest possible modes that can be devised, for a person wishing toset apart a portion of his annual receipts, with a view to makesome provision for a surviving family. In truth, life-insurance is