CHAPTER I. 
ON INVESTMENT RISKS. 
Investment is the act of laying out money with 
a view to keeping it safely, and at the same 
time securing an income from it. Two distinct 
objects being aimed at by the act of invest 
ment, there are naturally also two separate and 
distil] ct risks attached to it, namely, the risk 
attendant upon Capital and the risk attendant 
upon Income. 
All investments fluctuate in value, and 
there is hardly an investment in existence 
which may be relied upon with mathematical 
certainty to realise without any diminution the 
exact sum originally laid out in its purchase. 
There is, however, a large number of invest 
ments which may be absolutely relied upon as 
regular and uniform income-producers, so that 
the main difficulty of investment lies in keeping 
the original capital sum intact. 
Not only is the safety of capital attended 
by the greater risks, but, in addition, it con 
stitutes the cardinal question in the considera 
tion of the safety of an investment ; because, 
so long as capital remains intact, any diminu- 
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