ON THE NATURE OF INSURANCE. 255 



an extreme case, suppose an office should name a pre- 

 mium for which it would undertake to pay 100/., if the 

 party dies in the subsequent year ; 200/, if he dies in 

 the second subsequent year ; 300/. if he dies in the 

 third ; and so on. In this case, every fluctuation which 

 bears the appearance of lengthened life, were it only to 

 amount to deferring one death for a single year, would 

 be a new claim of WQL upon the office. , The fluc- 

 tuations which are observable in the very old lives, would 

 become matters of extreme importance; and though, 

 assuming a given table fairly to represent the average, 

 premiums might be calculated which should be sufficient 

 in the long run, yet there is no possibility of saying 

 what capital might become necessary to meet the fluc- 

 tuations of half a century. Such an attempt as tjie 

 preceding can be compared to nothing but gambling, 

 and its stability to nothing but that of a ship running 

 before the wind, with all the heavy cargo lashed to the 

 topgallant mast. Other cases might be mentioned, 

 which should partake of the same species of danger in 

 a less degree ; but every attempt to guarantee increased 

 benefits with increasing life should be looked at with 

 caution, as being of its own nature the addition of 

 risks in which the errors of the unsafe part of the 

 tables are, or may be, multiplied into importance. 

 There is an opposite plan, which I am not aware has 

 been tried, but which I should strongly recommend to 

 any new insurance office, as being of a safe character, 

 and also meeting the views under which many insure 

 their lives. It is that of insuring decreasing sums, 

 ; upon either fixed or decreasing premiums. Many 

 i persons are so situated, that they will be able to provide 

 for their families if they live a few years. To provide 

 for the hazardous period, they are under the necessity 

 either of insuring for their whole lives, that is, of buying 

 more insurance than they want; or of insuring for a 

 fixed term of years, which does not meet several con- 

 tingencies ; or of making complicated survivorship in- 

 surances. But, if a person so circumstanced found, by 



