4 BUSINESS OF LIFE INSURANCE

known in advance and paid for then, or if not certainly known were made good after the event by assessments as agreed upon, payment being secured, it is clear that the individuals would be relieved of their risks and that no risk would be incurred by the company. In other words, the element of hazard would be entirely can-celled, except that in the latter case there might be variation in the price of the insurance.

When the insurance is furnished bya company with capital or surplus which answers as a given guaranty of stability, it becomes a business, in-stead of a speculation, the distinction being that while an individual who assumes a single risk either loses or gains thereby the whole amount involved, the company which takes many, by means of the aggregate business reduces the possible variations to narrow limits and really makes of insurance a business attended with less peril than almost any other.

Thus as to life insurance. During a given year, an individual either dies or he survives the year; the result is a hundred per cent loss or a hundred per cent gain, if one wagers upon the one life. But make 100,000 of these bets upon persons of the same age and like physical condition and the variation in the result will not be two per cent usually, instead of two hundred per cent.