57; and the proportion of the expected number by the Equitable experience is to the actual number as 100 to 87." We have understood that the experience of the Scottish Widows' Fund since 1834 is even more favourable to life. If, then, we were to take the whole twentyfive years' experience of this society as a criterion, we should come to the conclusion that the Equitable experience, the Carlisle tables, and the Government mean, are considerably within the verge of safety, while the Northampton tables are so far from the standard of modern life as to be, particularly with regard to the younger class of lives, quite unfit for use. We have now to advert to THE RATE OF INTEREST, meaning the rate at which the yearly premiums may be expected to be improved. L. 1200, at the end of the first { L. 1200, discounted at 3 per cent., for one 61 62 L.42:25 10 9 This, divided by 46, gives £91, 17s. 2d. as the sum Supposing such a society to be constituted, and put out to interest, at the end of the first year From which deduct for the twelve lives which fail From which deduct for the ten lives which fail in Fund remaining at the commencement of the third From which deduct for claims, L.4352 5 2 1200 0 0 3152 5 2 1000 0 0 Which, bearing one year's interest, will amount to L.2314 8 2 800 @ 0 1514 8 2 This subject is one which does not admit of the same certainty as the other, and on which, accordingly, there may be great differences of opinion. In 1829, Mr Finlaison writes-"I take it for granted that it will be considered safe enough to assume that money, in a long course of years, will so accumulate, through all fluctuations, as to equal a constant rate of 4 per cent.; because, in point of fact, money has hitherto accumulated at 4 per cent., whether we reckon from 1803 or from 1783." Other writers, again, and among them Mr De Morgan, looking chiefly to the high price of the 3 per cents. of late years, say that not more than 3 per cent. should be counted on. Practically, the in- Which, bearing one year's interest, will amount to L.3246 16 8 vestments of assurance offices are made on terms much more favourable. It appears, from the published report of the Edinburgh Life-Assurance Company, dated December 1838, that for the three preceding years (1836, 1837, and 1838, when interest was unusually low), the average rate realised on their funds was £4, 16s. 6d. per cent.-about 14 per cent. higher than the return from the 3 per cents. during the same time. And this, it is stated, was obtained without any part being laid out in the purchase of reversions on which, it is known, a much higher rate can be got. The example of this office is quoted merely from the circumstance of their report happening to state the precise return at that period. Other Scottish offices are said to have obtained a higher rate. Most of them state that their funds are invested" about," "at," or "above," 5 per cent. Indeed, it is not conceivable that the offices could make such large returns to proprietors and members, in the shape of dividends and bonuses, if they did not generally improve money at about the rate last mentioned. From all of these circumstances, it does not appear likely that calculations for life-assurance, in which the interest of money is assumed at four per cent., will, while Britain remains in nearly its present condition, prove unsound. EXAMPLE OF LIFE-ASSURANCE CALCULATION. According to the Northampton tables, out of every 11,650 persons born alive, there will be 46 living at the age of 90. From these tables being ascertained to be unfavourable to life, this must be understood as not strictly the case, but it may be adopted for the sake of illustration. The same tables make it appear that, of the 46, 12 will die in the course of the first year, 10 during the second, 8 during the third, 7 during the fourth, 5 during the fifth, during the sixth, and the last remaining life will fail in the course of the seventh year. It is a favourite mode of exemplifying life-assurance calculation, to suppose these 46 persons, aged 90, associating for the purpose of assuring £100 to each at death. They are supposed to proceed upon the principle of paying all that is required in one sum at first, thus forming a fund which is to answer all the demands which are to be made upon it. In this calculation the improvement of money has been assumed at 3 per cent. The object is to ascertain what sum, by way of present payment, each is to contribute to the fund, so that it may discharge £1200 the first year, £1000 the second, £800 the third, and so on. In order to discharge Practically, life-assurance is not effected upon lives so advanced as ninety years. It is common to confine business to ages under 60; and the great bulk of insurers are between 27 and 40, the time about which men in this country begin to feel the responsibilities of a family. But the calculations followed for the various ages are formed exactly in the above mode. All the persons of a particular age in a life assurance society are considered as a distinct group insuring each other. Of those, for instance, at 30 years of age, it is calculated what proportion will die the first year, what the second, and so on; and from each the society looks for such a contribution, present or prospective, as may make up an aggregate sufficient, with the accumulation from compound interest, to pay the sum assured upon each life in that group. It is quite the same thing to the society, or, we shall say, to the general interest, whether the individual insurers pay the whole required contribution at once, or in a series of annual payments, which, as the plan convenient for most, is that generally adopted. FORMATION OF RATES. According to the principles of which we have given a slight outline, offices form scales of rates at which ! they profess to do business. In these rates a great discrepancy exists, for many continue to calculate mortality according to the Northampton tables, which, as shown, give the decrement of life too high; while others proceed upon those more recently formed, which are certainly much nearer the truth; and some, again, assume interest at only three or three and a half per cent., while others deem four not too high. There is also an allowance for the expenses of business to be added to the naked sums required by a regard to mortality and interest, and here also the minds of parties may differ, some allowing more and some less on this account. In most cases, the charges for life-assurance are considerably within the verge of safety. Hence companies generally divide good profits, and societies realise large surplusages, which fall to be divided among the insurers, in the form of additions to the sums stated in their policies. The scales of the various offices may be classed in three grades or sets, of each of which we shall give a few examples, endeavouring, at the same time, to show how each particular grade of charges operates in the realisation of profits and surplusages. Scales of the first or lowest grade are followed as yet by comparatively few offices; but the number is increasing. We presume that they proceed upon modern tables of mortality, and the expectation of four per cent. at an average, as, with regard to one of the following (the Scottish Provident), we have been informed that it follows the government table of males, and calculates upon money being improvable at the above-mentioned rate, adding from 10 to 15 per cent., according to age, for expenses of management, and as a guarantee against any unfavourable fluctuations of mortality and interest. We here, as elsewhere, limit ourselves to offices of undoubted probity. (the commencement of the society) and 1820, were declared entitled to 2 per cent. for each year of their currency. In 1832, the same policies received a further addition of 34 per cent. ; and at the same time those opened between 1820 and that time, were declared entitled to additions amounting to 1 per cent. per annum. In 1839, a retrospective bonus of 2 per cent. per annum was declared on all policies. The effect of these additions is, that policies for £1000, opened before 1820, at whatever age, will amount in 1845 to £1809, 8s. 7d. In 1841, the Scottish Equitable made its first division of surplusages, amounting to 2 per cent. per annum on all policies of above five years' standing; so that the heirs of a person who insured £500 in 1831 (the first year of the society), would now, in the event of his decease, realise £600, and so on in proportion. The Economic is a proprietary office, giving threefourths of the surplusages or profits to the assured. It was established in 1823. In 1834, a bonus, amounting to 16 per cent. on the premiums paid, was declared; and in 1839 there was a second bonus, amounting to 31 per cent. on the premiums paid during the preceding five years. The Norwich Union, in 1816, gave a bonus of 20 per cent. on the amount of premiums deposited by the members insured previous to June 1815; a second bonus of 24 per cent. in 1823; and a third of 25 per cent. in 1830. The Guardian is a proprietary office, in which a proportion of profits not stated is given to the assured. Established in 1821, its first division of profits was made in 1828, and a second in 1835. At each period, the bonuses averaged rather more than 28 per cent. on the amount of the premiums paid thereon during the preceding seven years. The Scottish Widows' Fund and A third class of offices, adopting, like the preceding, Scottish Equitable have both declared large surplusages. the Northampton tables, and generally of old standing, At the division of the first of these highly prosperous and acting upon old calculations, present higher scales societies, in 1825, the policies opened between 1815 of rates, of which we shall give a few examples: There are a few offices which charge still higher rates. The aggregate premiums of the London Assurance and National (mixed offices), are respectively £157, 0s. 8d., and £158, 3s. The London Life (mutual) is the highest, the aggregate of the scale being £171, 18s. It is clear that, if business can be transacted by a company at a profit, on a scale of rates amounting in the aggregate to £129, 7s. 91. (as in the case of the Aberdeen Company), the last set of rates ought to give companies very large profits, and societies equally considerable additions to policies. The scale of the Globe is also that of the Rock and Atlas, proprietary offices granting a share of profits to the assured. In the Rock, where three-fourths of the profits are divided, policies opened in 1806 for £1000, at whatever age, are now £2001, 11s. In the Atlas, which has not announced to the public the share of profits extended to the assured, policies for £1000, opened in 1816, ranged in 1837 from £1338 to £1789, according to age. objections. The high-rate societies, proceeding upon the Northampton tables, commit a constant injustice to young and middle-aged members, in favour of the old. The needless amplitude of their funds tends to occasion a less careful use of them in conducting the concern: there is, for instance, a greater temptation to give large commission to persons, who, as it is said, bring business; a practice in no respect different in morality from that of butchers and grocers who bribe cooks and butlers to favour them with their masters' custom. But the greatest objection to a needlessly high scale, is that it must act as an obstruction to the first step in what is generally one of the most important moral acts of a lifetime-the effecting of a life-assurance. We would here be understood to draw a broad distinction between an unsound low rate and one which is sufficient to satisfy a reasonable anxiety for security. Rates much below the first of the above three scales would be decidedly unsafe, taking all likely contingencies into account. On the other hand, it ought certainly to be possible to transact perfectly safe business upon a medium of that scale. Those who, for further caution, prefer the next scale, must be said to pay highly for it, if they resort to a company which gives no share of profits to the assured: if they become members of a society, large periodic additions to policies will be no more than their due. The high rates are defended on various grounds. A company making high charges, and consequently good profits, may be supposed to have more stability than one making moderate charges; while, of a society pursuing business on the same plan, it may be said that the overplus becomes a kind of bank deposit, to be ultimately realised by the depositor. With regard to companies, the defence may or may not be sound, according as business is managed discreetly or otherwise In order to convey still more distinct notions respect--and there certainly are offices of that nature, entitleding rates of life-assurance, we subjoin a scale of those to the most implicit confidence, although they present which are required, exclusive of expense for managemoderate scales. The defence is of greater force with ment, upon the Carlisle tables, taking money variously regard to societics; but even there it is not free from at 4 and 3 per cent. : L.1 10 4 L.1 15 1 35 L.2 0 5 L.2 7 6 L.2 15 6 2 17 10 L.3 7 3 LA 5 8 4 per cent., 3 per cent., The rates actually charged by the offices which we have cited, may easily be compared with these. It will be found that the additions made for management and the security of the concern, even to the 3 per cent. rate, are very considerable. The aggregate of the above ages at 34 per cent., is £18, 16s. 9d.; that of the same ages by the actual rate of the Aberdeen Company, is £21, 4s. 11d., or nearly 123 per cent. higher; that of the Fame ages by the Scottish Widows' Fund, is £24, 7s. 11d., or 29 per cent. higher; while that of the London Amic-up, by means of life-assurance, to provide against the able, is £25, 11s., or above 35 per cent. higher. MORAL DUTY OF LIFE-ASSURANCE. On this subject we add some remarks from a paper in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 373. They are conveyed in language which is apt to appear unmeasured to one who has not given the subject much consideration-but, we believe, only to him. "Such being the equitable and beneficial principles on which mutual-assurance societies are established, it is clear that they present, to men in the enjoyment of income, but possessing little property, a most suitable and favourable means of providing, in a greater or less measure, for the endeared and helpless relatives who may survive them. That only about 30,000 persons in the United Kingdom should have taken advantage of life-assurance, being but one in sixty-two of the supposed number of heads of families, surely affords a striking view of shall we call it the improvidence of mankind, or shall we not rather designate it as their cupable selfishness? For what is the predicament of that man who, for the gratification of his affections, surrounds himself with a wife and children, and peaceably lives in the enjoyment of these valued blessings, with the knowledge that, ere three moments at any time shall have passed, the cessation of his existence may throw wife and children together into a state of destitution? When the case is fully reflected upon, it must certainly appear as one of gross selfishness, notwithstanding that the world has not been accustomed to regard it in that light. It is unquestionably the duty of every man to pro vide, while he yet lives, for his own: we would say that it is not more his duty to provide for their daily bread during his life, than it is to provide, as far as he can, against their being left penniless in the event of his death. Indeed, between these two duties there is no essential distinction, for life-assurance makes the one as much a matter of current expenditure as the other. One part of his income can be devoted by a head of a family to the necessities of the present; another may be stored future. And thus he may be said to do the whole of his duty towards his family, instead of, as is generally the case, only doing the half of it. It may be felt by many, that, admitting this duty in full, income is nevertheless insufficient to enable them to spare even the small sum necessary as an annual premium for life-assurance. The necessities of the present are in their case so great, that they do not see how they can afford it. We believe there can be no obstacle which is apt to appear more real than this, where an income is at all limited; and yet it is easy to show that no obstacle could be more ideal. It will readily be acknowledged by every body who has an income at all, that there must be some who have smaller incomes. Say, for instance, that any man has £400 per annum: he cannot doubt that there are some who have only £350. Now, if these persons live on £350, why may not he do so too, sparing the odd £50 as a deposit for life-assurance? In like manner, he who has £200 may live as men do who have only £175, and devote the remaining £25 to have a sum assured upon his life. And so on. It may require an effort to accomplish this; but is not the object worthy of an effort? And can any man be held as honest, or any way good, who will not make such an effort, rather than be always liable to the risk of leaving in beggary the beings whom he most cherishes on earth, and for whose support he alone is responsible?" For a further account of modes of life-assurance, we refer to article SOCIAL ECONOMICS OF THE INDUSTRIOrs ORDERS. CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S NUMBER 47. NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES. PAGAN AND MAHOMETAN RELIGIONS. PRICE lad. PAGANISM is a disbelief or ignorance of the only true God, the Creator and Preserver of all; and in this debased and unhappy state all mankind appear to have been, until illuminated by the light of revelation and cultivated reason. In the state of mental darkness in which many savage and but partially improved races are found, Paganism may be said to prevail. Of this Paganism, however, there are evidently various degrees-some forms of religious belief ascending much higher than others, from the blinded reverence of gods made from blocks and stones, up to the worship of a plurality of creators, preservers, and destroyers. It is generally allowed that the lowest forms of religious belief are those which prevail among the Negro tribes in the central and western parts of Africa, and which consist in the reverencing and worshipping of objects usually classed under the name of fetishes. The word fetish or fetich, which is believed to be from the Portuguese language, signifies any object in nature or art to which, by a process of consecration, a supernatural or divine power is supposed to have been communicated, and which is therefore deemed worthy of religious veneration and worship. A fetish is thus a kind of idol, or visible representation of deity, and may be ranked with the household gods and presiding genii of the Egyptians, Greeks, and other nations of antiquity. The rude natives of Africa seem to possess no rule to determine the kind or number of their fetishes; it is a matter of free choice, so that whim and accident, much more than any definite feeling, settle which shall be the revered objects of their hopes and fears. There are national, local, and private fetishes; and besides one which is the tutelary genius of every single individual, the Negroes provide themselves with many others for particular purposes. Like the ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia, Nigritia, and Egypt, they often take along with them upon their journeys a living animal as a fetish, which is preserved with extraordinary care. Inasmuch, also, as the ancient Egyptians and their neighbours went to war on account of injury or insult to their gods-on one occasion there was a furious religious war between the cat and rat worshippers so vindictive wars and dissensions spring up between Negro tribes, if either maliciously or accidentally kill or injure a fetish of the other. universe is believed to be animated and furnished with spiritual powers; water, land, animals, stones, trees, and vegetables of every description, are all full of divine spirits and secret influences. He who makes any eatable article his fetish, touches nothing of that sort whatever, whilst he consumes, without the slightest hesitation, what others consider holy. There is a depth and mystery in this superstition which cannot be very clearly understood. As far as can be reasonably conjectured, this species of fetishism implies a connexion between the visible and invisible, and that every thing may by certain means be made to have a relation to man and his destiny. The quality of the thing arbitrarily set apart and invested with an attribute of divinity, is of no consequence; it may be a piece of bone, rag, egg-shell, or clay, indeed no matter what; there must merely be a belief of a relation subsisting between it and man, which relation often commences only for the first time when the thing is consecrated; in a word, every thing properly consecrated and revered as the residence or tangible investiture of deity, is supposed to have a divine power, which, when evoked, is able to incline the Deity to comply with the wishes of men. Under different names, this superstitious reverence for visible objects has prevailed in all ages and countries. At Cape Coast there is a rock projecting into the sea, invested with the character of a fetish, and worshipped by the priests, who annually offer sacrifices to it, with ridiculous gestures and strange invocations. In the great temple of Mahometanism at Mecca, there is a stone which is the object of unbounded respect and adoration. The Lacedæmonians had a sacred stone, which, at the sound of a trumpet, is said to have raised itself to the surface of the water, from the bottom of the Eurotas. The ancient Germans and Gauls had also their holy rocks, caves, seas, springs, and trees, which afforded miraculous aid, and delivered oracles. In Iceland there was a stone in which a divine spirit was supposed to reside, and was therefore an object of religious worship. The Laplanders had a sacred mountain and a consulting drum. All these superstitions are not a whit more respectable than the belief of the Negroes in fetishism; they are, indeed, almost the same thing. According to the visionary ideas of some ancient The Moors of Northern Africa, who, as Mahome- sages, a divinity was supposed to reside in matter, and tans, are opposed to the worship of idols, are attached to be liable to be roused from its latent state into to fetishism. They honour the fetishes as divine beings activity, by means of consecration and the performof an inferior rank, and carry them about their persons ance of solemn mysteries. In some of the islands of as amulets or charms. In Whiddah, and other parts of the Pacific, if any person wishes to protect his proAfrica, towards the south, a small insect, called the perty, such as a house, field, or place of sepulture, from creeping-leaf, is highly honoured; he who gets a sight robbery or intrusion, he declares that it is tabooed, or of one considers it a happy omen, and he who kills one placed under the guardianship of his gods; and the despairs of success; the serpent, also, is worshipped as belief that such is the case being universal, the proa fetish in temples by priests set apart for the purpose. perty is safe from aggression. Mr Ellis, in his "MisIn Benin, fetishes are more numerous, and, in part, of sionary Tour through Hawai," mentions some interestan entirely different description. The whole material | ing particulars regarding the superstitious delusions of the natives, which incline us to think that these remotely situated people must have had some early connexion with the ancient natives of Asia and Africa, from whom the Greeks and Romans imported their learning and mythological observances. These Hawains, as we are told, previous to their embracing Christianity, believed in a number of ideal gods, who were ministered to by priests, and were propitiated by sacrifices of animals: in making these sacrifices, the diviners observed "the manner in which the victims expired, the appearance of the entrails, and other signs. Sometimes, when the animal was slain, they embowelled it, took out the spleen, and, holding it in their hands, offered their prayers. If they did not receive any answer, war was deferred. They also slept in the temple where the gods were kept, and after the war-god had revealed his will by a vision or dream, or some other supernatural means, they communicated it to the king and warriors, and war was either determined or relinquished accordingly." The images of the gods who constituted the guardians of the tabooed places of sepulture, are described as figures oddly carved in pieces of wood; these were stuck on the fences and trees of the enclosure, and with their horrid aspect and ragged garments, seemed no improper emblems of the system they were designed to support. Adjoining the sacred enclosure, the author was shown a Pahu Tabu, or city of refuge, which was open for the Vishnu makes a very conspicuous figure in the sacred reception and security of all classes of delinquents, and annals of India, and the fundamental idea of the Hinresembling in its regulations the sanctuaries of anti- doo religion, that of metamorphoses or transformations, quity. These, and some other circumstances mentioned is exemplified in the avatars or appearances upon earth by Mr Ellis, open an interesting field for speculation on of this deity. In his character of preserver, or rather the probable connexion of ancient and modern super-deliverer, he has, say the Vedas, interposed whenever stitions, or at least on the similarity of the delusions any great calamity threatened the world: and thus the by which the untutored human being has in all ages great ends of his providence are brought about by the been affected. various incarnations of the Hindoo deity. Of these transformations there are ten, and they fill up the Indian yugs, which compose a certain series of periods intended to effect a junction with God, and comprising 4,320,000 years. The yugs have been considered as an allegorical description of the year, divided by the solstices and equinoxes, and of the precession of the equinoxes. Nine avatars have already taken place, and the tenth is yet to come. dering it the most ineradicable of any system of false belief and worship which exists. The Hindoos recognise the existence of a supreme and invisible Ruler of the universe, entitled Brahma, but at the same time believe in the existence of other two deities, one of whom is Vishnu the Preserver, and the other Siva the Destroyer. Previous to the creation, Brahma is said to have reposed in silence and self-absorption-a mode of existence considered by the Hindoos as the most perfect and god-like. Having a desire to draw out of his own divine essence a glorious creation, to supplant the deep primeval gloom, he by a thought created the water, and deposited therein a golden egg, blazing like ten thousand suns, which remained inactive for millions of years, till Brahma, who lay enclosed in this shining receptacle, by the energy of his own thought, split it asunder, and sprang forth the Divine Self-Existing, famed in all worlds as the creator of rational beings and the forefather of all spirits. Brahma is represented as a golden-coloured figure, with four heads and four arms; but although he gives name to the great caste of the Brahmins or priests, no sects derive their appellation from him; he attracts little attention or worship, and he has neither temples erected, nor sacrifices offered to him, nor festivals celebrated in his honour. Fetishism has long been practised among the Negroes of the West Indies, under the name of Obeah or Obia term most likely originating in Egypt and the adjacent parts of Africa, where anciently there was a deity of a demoniacal character, with the name Ob, or Oub, and from which Moses commanded the Israelites to abstain from making inquiries. Obi is therefore one of the exploded oracles of the ancient world, which has been carried by captured Negroes to the West Indies, and there set up as an oracle and the patron of incantations, charms, and all other superstitious delusions. The adepts who practise this kind of fetishism are called Obeah-men, or Obeah-women, for both sexes engage in the mysteries of this species of jugglery and imposture. We believe, that since the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, and the spread of education and Christianity, the practice of Obi has gone out of repute and notice. It is unnecessary to dwell at any length on the wonderful and ridiculous avatars of Vishnu. He first appeared in the character of a fish, for the purpose of recovering the sacred writings given by Brahma, which had been swallowed by a giant (typical of the rebellious human soul), and buried along with himself in the depths of the ocean. He successively appeared as a tortoise, a boar, a man-lion, what is called the Brahmen or lingam dwarf, and so on. The transformations are of the most ridiculous nature; and were we to recite them, they should only excite pity for the ignorance of the wretched believers in such absurdities. At one period the religion of the Parsees or Fireworshippers existed throughout Persia and other parts of Asia, but is now confined chiefly to the deserts of Caramania, towards the Persian Gulf, where it is fol- In his subsequent avatars under different forms, lowed by the Guebres or Giaours (infidels), as they are Vishnu delivered the world from successive monsters called by the Mahometans. The great prophet or im- and giants which threatened its tranquillity. In the prover of the Parsee religion was Zoroaster, who ninth avatar, which is supposed to have taken place flourished about two thousand years ago, and taught in the year 1014 before the Christian era, Vishnu asthe doctrines of there being an eternal spirit of Good or sumed the form of Boodh, the author of a rival creed Light (Ormuzd), and an eternal spirit of Evil or Dark-distinct from that of Brahma. It appears pretty evident ness (Ahriman), with a vast number of inferior good and bad genii. In this there was a glimmering of a pure theism; but besides a variety of absurd imaginations respecting the organisation of nature, the belief in one God was obscured by a typical worship of the sun, and of fire, both being supposed emanations, or at least emblems, of the spirit of Good and Light. Fireworship, as practised by the Persian magi, disappeared before the spread of Christianity and Mahometanism, and, as we have said, exists chiefly among the Guebres, a detached remnant of the old Persian nation. that Boodhism at one time very extensively prevailed throughout India; and several great dynasties, particularly that of Magadha, were Boodhist. But a war having taken place between the devotees of Brahma and those of Boodh, the latter were worsted, and dispersed throughout the countries to the east and north of Hindostan, and Boodhism is no longer professed in India. The rival systems will be noticed after we have described the other deities, male and female. In the tenth avatar, Vishnu will descend to the earth mounted on a white horse, and armed with a scimitar blazing like a comet, to root out evil from the earth, and eternally to punish the wicked. Vishnu is represented of Hindooism or Brahminism is the religion professed a black or blue colour, with four arms, and a club to by a majority of the inhabitants of Hindostan ; and while exercise chastisement on the wicked. The emblems possessing the force of great antiquity, it is supported under which he is represented refer to his vindictive by a skilful priesthood and the division into castes, ren-character. He has three eyes, to denote the three great HINDOOISM. |