[203] Thus, at the age of thirty, a person with 8_l._ 14_s._ 9_d._ to spare may buy an assurance of 20_l._ to be paid at death. Two or three years afterwards, and after a prosperous interval, he may be disposed to increase that amount to 25_l._, 40_l._, or 50_l._ Suppose the latter sum, and he has attained the age of thirty-three, he pays down another sum of 13_l._ 13_s._ 10_d._, and then finds himself insured by these two single payments in the sum of 50_l._ whenever death may occur. Of course he may stop here; but he may also, if he thinks fit, go on adding, at such intervals and in such amounts as may best suit his convenience, to his original policy, till at last it acquires the value of 100_l._ [204] Many postmen and rural letter-carriers are insured in this way for a sum of 100_l._ [205] It will be remembered that under the Act 16 and 17 Vict., c. 45, a person could only insure his life on condition that he purchased an annuity. It is not so generally known that in the course of eleven years not one proposal for this twofold contract was ever received. It is not a little remarkable that now, this arrangement being no longer compulsory, one in every hundred proposers for Life Insurance also proposes for the purchase of an Annuity. CHAPTER XI. CONCLUDING CHAPTER. "And when I shall go to my account, and the great Questioner whose judgments err not, shall say to me, 'What didst thou with the lent talent?' I can truly answer, 'Lord, it is here; and with it all that I could add to it--doing my best to make little much.'"--EBENEZER ELLIOTT. The above words of the brave Corn Law Rhymer refer of course to far higher duties than any with which we have dealt in this volume. That application may be made of them even to our present subject is nevertheless clear, and we leave the thoughtful reader to make it. Real economy and frugality are virtues, and as such are inculcated in the Christian code; neglect of them is condemned both by the moral and the religious code. Christ expressed the very spirit of economy, care of little things, a prudent thrift, and avoidance of all waste, when after miraculously feeding the multitude in the desert He instructed His disciples to "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost:" and it is at least noteworthy, that this injunction immediately followed another, wherein He warned the same men against the greed of life, telling them that a man's riches did not consist in the abundance of his possessions.