We now pass to the traces of the early practice of LIFE INSURANCE, a subject which has in general been but very slightly noticed.
The estimation of the value of human life in its rudest approximation—that is, of the term of years which, on the average of a sufficient number of observations, would be observed to fall to the share of each of a given number of individuals born under certain circumstances, and continuing in certain climates or ranks—was to all appearance a subject the consideration of which, not only the speculations of the remoter ages had no impelling cause to enter upon, but one which, if pursued, would have led not only to scepticism, but even to persecution, for entering on a tacitly admitted forbidden ground.
