INTRODUCTORY.
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began, and then the credit side would begin to bear figures. But homicidal and suicidal characteristics in the vocations of each have cut short their careers, and closed the account. The balances being struck, it will of course be found, that as an investment, so far as present material interests are concerned, the student has been least profitable: that which was invested is gone. But if future possibilities and expectations could be computed, as longevity is by “ life-tables,” then the expenditure might stand in the light of a venture whose every promise was satisfactory, but which some unforeseen misfortune rendered a dead loss. Of course it is of paramount importance for the community to prevent a loss, which, if it occur now, is total, but which, averted, by further expenditure and the alchemy of time is transmuted into gain. It is equally clear, that to lose in toto an investment that has become a source of revenue, is, so far as present time and economic forces are concerned, a graver loss than the abstraction of