One other argument only may be advanced. Although in the case of a person dying intestate, the law provides him with heirs, it is very seldom that the distribution of property in this way is consistent with justice, far less with the intentions of the deceased, had he been wise enough to provide a will; for the law lays down a certain positive succession which must apply to all cases alike, and cannot be guided by any individual circumstances.

Independently of friends and relations, the numerous instances of active benevolence which have characterised many opulent individuals, whose large and liberal heart, expanded by a constant attention to human miseries, ought to make a man of sound mind and large fortune not a little enviable, and inspire him with the sacred ambition of having his name enrolled among the benefactors of mankind.

SECTION XXXVI.

A TABLE

OF THE PROBABILITY OF LIVES, WITH OBSERVATIONS.

THE first column of each of the four divisions of this table contains the age of the person, and the second column contains the number of years and months during which a person of that age has an equal chance to live.

Age Dur. of Life Age Dur. of Life Age Dur. of Life ge Dur. of Life

"By this Table," says the author*, "we may see, that it may reasonably be hoped, that is to say, we may lay or bet one to one that a new-born infant will live eight years; that a child of one year old will live 33 years more; that a child of full two years old will live 38 years more; that a man of 20 complete, will live 33 years and five months more; that a man of 30 will live 28 years more, and so of all the other ages.― And he adds the following observations:

1st. That the age at which the longest life is to be expected, is the age of seven, because we may lay an equal wager, or one to one, that a child of that age will live 42 years and three months longer. 2d. That at the age of 12 or 13 we have lived a fourth part of our life, because we cannot reasonably expect to live above 38 or 39 years longer; that, in like manner, at the age of 28 or 29 we have lived one half our life, because we have but 28 years more to live; and lastly, that before 50, we have lived three-fourths of our life, because we can hope but for 16 or 17 years more. But, says he, these physical truths, however mortifying in themselves, may be alleviated by moral considerations; for a man ought to consider the first fifteen years of his life as nothing: all that happened to him, all that passed in that long interval of time, is

* This Table of the probabilities of the duration of the life of man was calculated from the mortality bills of three parishes in the city of Paris, and twelve country parishes in the neighbourhood of that city, by M. Buffon.

effaced out of his memory; or, at least, has so little relation to the views and the affairs which after that time take up his thoughts, that it gives him no concern: it is no longer the same succession of ideas, or, we may say, the same life. We do not begin our moral life until after we have begun to regulate our thoughts, to direct them to ascertain future views, and to assume a sort of consistency-a relation to what we ought to be afterwards. By considering the duration of life in this light, which is the true one, we shall find from the Table, that, at the age of 25, we have lived but a fourth part of our life, that at the age of 38 we have lived but half of it, and that we have not passed three-fourths of it until the 56th year of our age.

These are the author's observations, to which we shall add, with regard to insurances upon lives, that, for insuring for one year the life of a child of three years old, we ought to pay but 24 per cent.; for as it has, by this Table, an equal chance of living 40 years, it is forty to one that it does not die in the year. In the same manner we ought to pay but 3 per cent. for insuring for one year the life of a lad of 19 or 20; but 4 per cent. for insuring for one year the life of a man of 35, and but 5 per cent. for insuring for one year the life of a man of 43; after which the insurance ought to rise above 5 per cent. in proportion to the advance of a person's age above 43, so that a man of 77 ought to pay 25 per cent. and a man of 85, 33 per. cent. for insuring his life for one year.

And from the same Table we may see, that those

who insure lives at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, that is to say, who have 57. paid them yearly for every 1007. they engage to pay upon the death of any person, such insurers, we may see, must be great gainers, even at the present low rate of interest, if the persons whose lives are thus insured be above one and under 51 years of age; because 51. per annum at 3 per cent. compound interest, supposing the money to be laid out at interest, half-yearly only, produces above 1007. in 16 years, whereas it appears by this Table that all persons above one and under 51 years of age have an equal chance of living for more than 16 years. Nay, as 51. per annum at 3 per cent. compound interest, produces above 2007. in 27 years, the insurers must be above cent. per cent. gainers upon the lives of all persons above one, and under 31 years of age.

Then, with regard to the purchase or sale of annuities for life, we may from this Table and the Tables of Compound Interest, easily see what a person of any age ought to pay for an annuity for life; because, in this Table we may see what number of years a person of any age has an equal chance to live; and in the Tables of Compound Interest we may see what is the present value of any annuity for that number of years at the then common rate of interest. Thus, a person of 30 has, by this Table, an equal chance to live 28 years; and, by the Tables of Compound Interest, we may see that the present value of 17. per annum for 28 years, reckoning interest at 3 per cent., is a little above 187. 15s. Therefore, a person of that age ought