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  investment, ­
  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  investments ­
  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  constitutes ­
  the  cardinal  question  in  the  consideration ­
  of  the  safety  of  an  investment  ;  because,
so  long  as  capital  remains  intact,  any  diminu-B
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