CHAPTER IV. 
WHY GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
PROTECTS BOTH CAPITAL AND INCOME. 
By means of the examples already given in 
this book we have clearly established the fact 
that every individual purchase of stock is 
strongly tinged with the element of specula 
tion, and that this speculative element cannot 
be eliminated from any isolated purchase or 
from any individual holding, for it is impossible 
to predict the exact future of any individual 
stock. 
It is true that a close investigation of the 
inherent safety and value of a particular 
security may serve as a most useful and, 
indeed, a very necessary guide to future proba 
bilities. But probabilities are by no means 
certainties, and anyone who pronounces this 
or that investment to be a practical certainty 
should be regarded with distrust by all prudent 
investors. 
It would, perhaps, be impossible to find a 
more convincing example of the slender 
foundation upon which all investment cer 
tainties rest than is furnished by Consols.