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At the age of thirty he may, by paying $25 a year to an Insurance Office, secure at his death, whenever it may happen, $1,000, for the benefit of his wife or children, or as he may direct by his will. In a way insurance is a kind of savings bank, but imposing an obligation on the part of the depositor to save a certain sum every year. In the case of the bank, the savings are optional, and cease at death; whereas by insurance, the return of a large sum is the result of the death of the compulsory depositor. If a person put by $25 everyyear and invested that sum in the Government Funds at 2 1/2 per cent., or deposited the same sum annually in a bank, at the same rate of interest, it would take him twenty-eight years to accumulate $1,000, if he lived so long; whereas by an insurance on his life for the same amount, if he died a week after the first payment of $25 had been made, the $1,000 insured would be paid to his representatives.

Life insurance is an admirable system, devised, in all its ramifications, to provide against loss or damage through the various contingencies to which human nature is subject. A simple life insurance is that by which a person may leave behind him a sum of money for the benefit of those who, during his life, have been dependent upon him. For example, a husband, whose income is entirely derived from his own exertions, desires to make some provision for his wife and children in the event of his dying before them.