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tingencies; and in a perfectly practical way, for purposes of enlightened selfishness only, they cooperate in insurance, as they cooperate in the State, for mutual protection.

Indemnity is the fundamental idea of insurance. It replaces, in whole or in part, in kind or in equivalent, that which is lost. This it does by what is a reversal of gambling, though it bears much similitude to gambling in form. Thus gambling is to bet upon a certain contingency. If it happens, )-oil get back your stake and also the stake of your opponent; if it does not happen, you lose vour stake. In insurance, so far as the surface of the thing goes, you also bet upon a contingency. If it happens, you get the stake of your opponent, that is, the amount of the insurance if the loss is so much; but you do not get your stake back. If it does not happen, you lose your stake. The only difference appears, on the surface, to be that you do not get your stake back and that your opponent is also stakeholder.

But when you go deeper into it, the case is otherwise. It would not be gambling, though it seems so, if another had ventured your money for you on a certain contingency, for you to bet a like sum on the other side, so that in any event you would come out even. That is what gamblers call a "hedge" and speculators a "wash sale." Nature exposes men to certain risks of loss. To permit that risk to remain uncovered is really to gamble; to coyer it by insurance is to "hedge."

It may also be shown that the company does not gamble. If )-on put one bet on the tossing of a coin, )-oil either win or lose. But if you put ten thousand such bets, the laws of awerage come in to limit your loss or

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