If we will introduce such a balance of pleasure and pain the individual must make the calculation for himself. The supposition is that total ruin is very painful, partial loss painful in a less proportion than that assigned by the ratio of the losses themselves; the inference is therefore drawn that on the average more pain is caused by occasional great losses than by frequent small ones, though the money value of the losses in the long run may be the same in each case. But if we suppose a country where the desire of spending largely is very strong, and where owing to abundant production loss is easily replaced, the calculation might incline the other way. Under such circumstances it is quite possible that more happiness might result from playing for high than for low stakes. The fact is that all emotional considerations of this kind are irrelevant; they are, at most, mere applications of the theory, and such as each individual is alone competent to make for himself. Some more remarks will be made upon this subject in the chapter upon Insurance and Gambling. 30. It is by the introduction of such considerations as these that the Petersburg Problem has been so perplexed. Having already given some description of this problem we will refer to it very briefly here. It presents us with a sequence of sets of throws for each of which sets I am to receive something, say a shilling, as the minimum receipt. My receipts increase in proportion to the rarity of each particular kind of set, and each kind is observed or inferred to grow more rare in a certain definite but unlimited order. By the wording of the problem, properly interpreted, I am supposed never to stop. Clearly therefore, however large a fee I pay for each of these sets, I shall be sure to make it up in time. The mathematical expression of this is, that I ought always to pay an infinite sum. To this the objection is opposed, that no sensible man would think of advancing even a large finite sum, say £50. Certainly he would not; but why? Because neither he nor those who are to pay him would be likely to live long enough for him to obtain throws good enough to remunerate him for one-tenth of his outlay; to say nothing of his trouble and loss of time. We must not suppose that the problem, as stated in the ideal form, will coincide with the practical form in which it presents itself in life. A carpenter might as well object to Euclid's second postulate, because his plane came to a stop in six feet on the plank on which he was at work. Many persons have failed to perceive this, and have assumed that, besides enabling us to draw numerical inferences about the members of a series, the theory ought also to be called upon to justify all the opinions which average respectable men might be inclined to form about them, as well as the conduct they might choose to pursue in consequence. It is obvious that to enter upon such considerations as these is to diverge from our proper ground.