[ 6r ] 
them in the leafl exceptionable manner : for till we 
get a more authentic account of life, or ufe what we 
have, without too much obfequioufnefs to great names, 
we fhali be as if blind and fettered. During fuch 
prejudices and reftraint, it is too early to compute 
values with minute precifion, as fome do, and wrangle 
about trifles, while they fuffer firf/t principles of greater 
moment to pafs quite unregarded. 
W hether my conjecture be right or not, Dr. Hal- 
ley had reafons why he left off at 84, as you may 
have for ending at 87 5 and the term of final di- 
rection is fettled by another great. mailer (20) at 8 6. 
.But when many perfons outlive fuch tables, and are 
moll defirous to purchafe annuities, upon eafy terms, 
for their lives, and have no rule at all left, it muft be 
very acceptable, by whomfoever faithfully performed, 
to have a table beginning with the living births, 
formed upon 100,000 lives at leafl, and carried on 
to the extremity, I fhould almoll fay the.utmoll pof- 
fibility of life, with the fwift or flow increafe of an- 
nual mortality, noted in a fubfequent column, and 
in confequence the term or expectation properly 
eci ec,io.ng, from the belt life about 5 or 6, till the : 
whole be exhaulled : and it would be a fatisfaCtion to . 
me, if, by fuggelting any hints, it may put abler 
hands at work, to bring it at Lift to fuch a perfect - 
Hate, as I conceive, at prefent, in imagination only. 
m profpeCt of this, give me leave to obferve, that : 
the numbers in thofe columns Per mille and One out 
(20) Mr; De Moivre, pref. p. v. (edit. 1725.) traCf, p. 10. 
47. 76. 79. This (trikes off 14 years of Dr. Halley’s table. 
Younger lives can hardly look fo far forward, but old perfons fee 
them at hand, and the value of all expectations is in proportion to 
their near approach. 
3 
