Assur

“ Amiable and worthy folk break their necks every day of the week,—fathers of families and unbeneficed clergymen. Assurance companies should certainly deal lightly with crusty old bachelors and disagreeable people, for they bear charmed lives. ”

“ Assurance, my friends, may be reasonable enough when it is founded on repentance and hatred of evil, and love and practice of what is good. But, again, assurance may be as unreasonable as it is offensive. ”

“ The assurance, therefore, which Congress have directed you to make, must not be considered in the number of those idle compliments, which are the common currency or small change of a Court. It is an assurance important because it is founded in truth, and more important still because it is dictated by the affections of a people. ”

“ Assurances are granted upon the lives of persons in every profession and station in life, and for every part of the world, with the exception, for the present, of that part of the western coast of Africa within the tropics. ”

“ It was cultivated only by the few; whereas in Babylonia the greater part of the population seems to have been able to read and write. If the Assyrian was less luxurious than his Babylonian neighbour, he was also less humane. Indeed, the Assyrian annals glory in the record of a ferocity at which we stand aghast. On the other hand, the Assyrian was not so superstitious as the Babylonian, though he ascribed his successes to the favour of Assur, and impaled the inhabitants of conquered towns or burnt them alive because they did not believe in his national deity. ”

“ If contemporary accounts are to be trusted, the ravenous appetite for assurance was something like that which at the present day possesses projectors, as offices were opened in every part of the town. If one company was commenced to insure marriage portions, a second was sure to follow to insure the portions of their children. A mutual life assurance was instantly followed by a mutual ship assurance. ”

“ Assurance is displayed to perfection in modern Assurance Companies; and it only requires assurance to raise a company as baseless as the emasculated minus of No. I., and as fabrickless as a "footless stocking without a leg," which shall be eagerly taken by the public.
The following Prospectus, lately issued by a company in West Middlesex, will afford an example ”

“ With incomes which just enable them to pay their debts, and which provide for no contingencies, they are to a great degree incapacitated from insuring their lives; and solacing themselves, therefore, with the idea that a small insurance would be of no avail, they feel that they cannot afford a great one. To this class, therefore, a society which specially provides for its wants is a great benefit; and a kindly feeling between the clerk on the one side, and his superior on the other, is encouraged, to the advantage of both, through the Provident Clerks’ Mutual Life Assurance Association. ”

“ The vastness of this interest, its domestic character, its mercantile and its social bearings, are all important; and as life assurance is making rapid strides in public esteem, it is probable that where one man now insures for the sake of his [263] family, two will do it in twenty years’ time; always provided no check be given to the principle, by the failures of offices, through extravagant expenses, or through want of business.
There is a general objection on the part of commercial men to see the Government interfere in mercantile affairs. ”

“ In short, the present-day social mechanism is a trial-and-error insurance plan designed to afford some degree of assurance and protection against a return to the terrible and antisocial conditions which characterized the early experiences of the human race. ”

“ Assurance is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigor, activity, energy, manliness, beauty. ”

“ We who have to do with life assurance transactions are in the habit of appraising the lives of people, and I am regarding your uncle's life just as if it had been insured in one of these institutions. ”

“ Every energy was, therefore, devoted to the extension of our mercantile interests; and although Lombards, goldsmiths, Jews, and usurers, frequently granted annuities, there appears to have been no united attempt to grant assurances on lives.
This universal spirit of commerce produced, however, marine assurance very early, while the gradual progressive movements made in science and philosophy, [3] prepared the way for assurance on life. The rude notions of an uncultivated age were succeeded by broader and more statesmanlike views ”

“ Unfortunate as these bubble assurance companies might be, unformed and unintelligent as their conductors proved, and ruinous as they were to the people who trusted them, they were a movement in the right direction. The principle of life assurance is so eminently social, and so important to those who wish to invest their savings for their successors, that any effort or endeavour to move this science from the hands of usurers and speculative merchants was to be rejoiced at. ”

“ Great power must always lie with friends in recommending assurance to those whose circumstances demand it. An instance of this may be found in the case of a well-known City merchant. The estate of this gentleman was entailed on the male line; but notwithstanding this, it was his chief fancy to improve the property, to the detriment of the female branches, the only mode of obviating this being to insure his life to the extent of the sum spent in improvements. ”

“ Though this objection is hardly worth answering to men of business, yet it looks something fair to them that know no better; and for the information of such, I trouble the reader with a few heads:
First, they must consider the insurer is out no stock.
Secondly, it is but one risk the insurer runs; whereas the assured has had a risk out, a risk of debts abroad, a risk of a market, and a risk of his factor, and has a risk of a market to come, and therefore ought to have an answerable profit. ”

“ Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony. ”

“ After this Nabonidos carried out the will of the gods. His “vast army” was summoned from Gaza on the one side to the Persian Gulf on the other, and set to work to restore the temple of Haran, which had been built three centuries before by the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser II, and subsequently repaired by Assur-bani-pal.
[pg 143] Two statements will be noticed in the inscription which will appear strange to students of ancient history. Cyrus is called “the young servant” of Merodach, the patron-deity of Babylon, and “king of Anzan,” or Elam, not of Persia. ”

“ The person who joins an assurance society is in a different position. His annual or quarterly saving becomes at once a portion of a general fund, sufficient to realize the intention of the assured. At the moment that he makes his first payment, his object is attained. Though he die on the day after his premium has been paid, his widow and children will receive the entire amount of his assurance. ”

“ Religion of Assyria, including deities and beliefs borrowed from Babylonia; but the Semites had greatly modified the original Accadian conceptions; belief of the Zi, evil and good spirits; diseases caused by demoniacal possession, and only curable by exorcisms and charms; the spirits most dreaded those who had been raised to the position of gods, as Anu, Mul-ge, and Ea; spirits of the heavenly bodies, 55-6; curious contrasts: polytheism and monotheism, victories ascribed to Assur, and wars undertaken in his name: inconsistency and changes in the cult explained ”

“ Men, and governments, must act to the best of their ability. There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life. ”

“ The present extensive and beneficial system of assurance on lives, reversionary payments, annuities, and legacy duties on the latter species of testamentary property, is founded on calculations deduced from numerous bills of mortality.
6. The prosperity or decay of commerce, manufactures, or trade of any place, is shown by comparing bills of mortality of different dates.
III. Morally.—They mark:
1. The prevalence of moral or licentious habits.
2. The diseases of which the inhabitants of a place die; and, consequently, those arising from luxury or intemperance. ”

“ It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability, and the fear of miscarriage, which hinders Our first attempts, is gradually dissipated as our skill advances towards certainty of success. ”

“ Assurance is contemptible and fatal unless it is self-knowledge. ”

“ You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday, and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking. ”

“ We insure our lives for the same reason that we insure our houses and our ships. All three things have money value; all stand momentarily in danger of destruction; and all are insured for the purpose of recouping ourselves and our dependents for their loss. ”

“ I only wish that the public at large were equally alive to the great value of insurance against accident. W’y, ma’am, it’s a duty, a positive duty,” (here he addressed himself to Mrs Marrot) “to insure one’s life against accident.” ”

“ XII. The insurance of any goods, &c. in this society, which shall be insured in any other office at the same time, to be void: And yet such insurer shall be liable to his covenants. Nevertheless a liberty is given to insure in any other office, so as such other insurance is indorsed on this society’s policy, and subscribed by two of the trustees, for which 6d. per cent. is to be paid; and in which case a proportionable part of any loss is to be paid by this society. ”

“ You may make of life insurance a cheap business, or you may make of it a dignified profession; you may be a mere annoying canvasser, or you may be a man who commands respect; but, to be really successful, you must have, or acquire, a technical knowledge of the basis of insurance, a knowledge of law, and, above all, a knowledge of human nature,—and even that will avail little if you are not temperamentally suited to the work. ”

“ I, who have returned the wrongs received from you by vigilant, untiring benefits—I, who have saved you from so many enemies and so many dangers—I, who, now, when all the rest of earth shun you, when all other resource fails—I, who now say to you, 'Share my income, but be honest!'—I receive injury from that hand! ”

“ The principle involved is simply that of insurance, founded on the undoubted fact that want is a greater evil than wealth, beyond a simple competence, is a benefit; and that, consequently, where the income is either terminable or uncertain, it is wise, after providing the necessaries of life, to employ at least a part of the remainder in purchasing security for the future. ”

“ He’s insured against employers’ liability. He’s insured against war. He’s insured against loss of business profits. The interest on his mortgage securities is insured. His wretched little automobile is insured. ”

“ When we would protect ourselves against the chance which gives up our houses to destruction by fire, or when we would secure our dependents against the accident which deprives us of life and them of a protector, we take out an insurance policy on house or life. ”

“ You see, my business is all connected with insurance; and Mottram was insured with us, and insured heavily.”
“Well, there you are, you see; you have the experience and I haven’t. But doesn’t it seem to you strange that a man in good health, who digests his meals, and has no worries, should take his own life in the hope of benefiting his heirs, whoever they may prove to be? ”

“ You can insure your own life, or your wife's, or your children's or anybody else's, in whose existence you may have a beneficial interest, and there are a hundred others ready to receive the premiums. ”

“ But, gentlemen, do not let us call an Insurance Institution a business. It is not a business; we are not business men. Far from it! We have collected a sum of money and we are ready to risk it. Is this not so, gentlemen? ”

“ When some one owes you a large sum of money, you immediately take the precaution to provide yourself with a written security, saying to yourself, " Who knows what may happen?" And why do you not use the same precaution concerning your immortal soul, which is of much more importance than the large sum of money? Why do you not say of your soul, " Who knows what may happen?" ”

“ The most terrible misfortunes are also the most improbable and remote—the least likely to occur. The rule I am giving is best exemplified in the practice of insurance,—a public sacrifice made on the altar of anxiety. ”

“ Thus accurate method was applied to the insurance-table, which enables a man to hedge against his ugliest risks, to eliminate his chances of fire and death by betting that he shall have a new roof over his head and a provision for his widow. Of all the wonderful turns of the human mind in the course of culture, scarce any is more striking than this history of lots and dice. ”

“ They have even undertaken to replace the old-fashioned Providence—and by what? By insurance companies! We insure ourselves against accidents, against risks, against death—indeed a far-sighted wisdom! Why should we not be insured also against fear? ”

“ In the eighteenth century a company was established, the chief feature in which was the omission of the clause which renders the policy void in the event of suicide. A man went and insured his life, securing the privilege of a free-dying Englishman, and then took the insurers to dine at a tavern to meet several other persons. After dinner he said to the underwriters, “Gentlemen, it is fit you should be acquainted with the company. These honest men are tradesmen, to whom I was in debt, without any means of paying but by your assistance, and now I am your humble servant.” ”

“ But the results in the social economy, the substitution of reasonable foresight and confidence for apprehension and the sense of hazard, the large elimination of chance from business and conduct, have a supreme value. The direct contribution of insurance to civilization is made, not in visible wealth, but in the intangible and immeasurable forces of character on which civilization itself is founded. ”