/ 
— 1825.) 
be thus Anglicized :—* Ceres, bountiful 
mother! pitying them perishing with 
hunger, entrusted to the hands of Trip- 
tolemus the uses of seed.” Two figures 
are engraved in the first of these com- 
partments,—the former representing 
Ceres, the latter an hungered mortal, to 
whom the goddess is in the act of ex- 
tending her bounty. And in the other 
compartment, Triptolemus is shewn 
riding on a dragon, and strewing, as he 
moves through the liquid air, seeds for 
the use of mankind. 
Triptolemus, who, according to the 
most received opinion, was son of 
Celeus, King of Attica, was born at 
Eleusis,; in Attica. He was cured, in 
his youth, of a severe illness, by the 
care of Ceres, who had been invited 
into the house of Ceieus by that mo- 
narch’s children, as she travelled over 
the country in quest of her daughter. 
To repay the kindness of Celeus, the 
goddess took particular notice of his 
son. She fed him with her own milk, 
and placed him on burning coals during 
the night, to destroy whatever particles 
of mortality he had received from his 
parents. The mother was astonished 
at the uncommon growth of her son, 
and she had the curiosity to watch 
Ceres. She disturbed the goddess by a 
sudden cry, when Triptolemus was laid 
on the burning ashes; and as Ceres was 
therefore unable to make him immortal, 
she taught him agriculture, thereby ren- 
dering him serviceable-to mankind, by 
instructing him how to sow corn and 
aake bread. She also gave him his 
chariot, which was drawn by two dra- 
gons; and in this celestial vehicle he 
travelled all the world over, distributing 
corn to its inhabitants. ~ PausanIas, il, 
Insurance 
c. 14, Your’s, &c. Jacobus, 
9th March, 1825. 
—z»>—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On InsurANcE CompanliEs. 
HE discussions which took place, 
during the last session of Parlia- 
ment, respecting the formation of Joint- 
Stock Companies,—and which, if we are 
to place any confidence in the threats 
of the Lord Chancellor, are likely again 
to occupy the attention of that great 
legislative body, — bave,~ necessarily, 
-drawn the public mind to the conside- 
ration of a subject, fraught with’ so much 
‘importance to the commercial interests 
of the country. There never was a 
time, perhaps, when money was: so 
Companies. 219 
abundant: nor have we* ever witnessed 
the birth—in some instances, we may 
say the abortion—of so many schemes 
for the employment of capital, as are 
now springing up, in every form and 
direction. 
Among the most conspicuous, and, 
under certain circumstances, the most 
advantageous, of these schemes, may be 
classed, the formation of companies for 
the purpose of insurance, but more par- 
ticularly of Lire Insurance ; a science, 
which is now better understood than 
ever it was, and which is arriving, ra- 
pidly, at perfection, under the able 
direction of Messrs. Morgan, Milne, 
Frend, and others. Still, however, the 
system is far distant from maturity ; 
for from the want of an accurate know- 
ledge of its benefits, and of the ready 
method by which they are attainable, 
the insurance of lives has hitherto been 
very limited; and the different chari- 
ties, for the relief of the widows and 
children of professional men, may be 
regarded as examples of the neglect of 
life insurance. 
An Insurance Company may be con- 
stituted in three ways: it may consist 
of share-holders, or proprietors, inde- 
pendent altogether of insurers; or it 
may be formed entirely of mutual in- 
surers, without preprietors: or of a 
combination of both. A great deal has 
been written and said as to the supe- 
rior advantages of the one plan over 
the others; but, as far as we have been 
able to judge, it appears that a pro- 
prietary company, under certain rules 
and restrictions, is the most secure 
mode of transacting insurance. This, 
indeed, is the system in_ general 
use, and may be said, (to borrow the 
words of a writer on the subject), to be 
the sale of insurance or indemnity to 
those who are disposed to purchase, at 
such prices as will leave a profit to the 
proprietors. In these institutions, a 
large number of capitalists form a trad- 
ing fund, and engage to pay a certain 
sum at the death of any person who, 
during 
* Wr should be obliged to our corre- 
spondents if they would refrain from the 
use of this editorial pronoun; we are de- 
‘sirous that all correspondence should stand 
and appear as correspondence merely, for 
which the editor has no other responsibility 
than such as pertains to the fitness of the 
subject, and of the mode of treating it.— 
Epi. ; 
QF 2 
