A few miscellaneous observations may be offered, some of which have already been implicitly or explicitly expressed: repetition, though wearisome at times, often adds to force of impression, and thus carries its own excuse.

Stockbroker necessary.

1. In the purchase or sale of investments, the transactions should be carried out by a respectable stockbroker.

The investor should give his instructions clearly and precisely in writing; the broker should be advised of the exact nature of the stock or share selected, and the price at which it is to be bought or sold - allowing, if need be, a small assigned margin of price either way. In lending money on security a preliminary agreement of conditions is required; these obviously should be most precisely expressed, and my own view is, that it is preferable to incur the cost of its preparation by a reputable solicitor, than to sustain the chance of loss or compensation through the employment (to which the ordinary man is astonishingly liable) of language which is not sufficiently guarded or defined.

Written Statements Better Than Verbal Agree-Ments

2. In all business transactions, whatever be the character, honour and position of each contractor, written statements should be adopted in place of verbal agreements. The latter course is a fertile source of ultimate misunderstandings and misinterpretations; even on occasions where each person is simply anxious to deal with rectitude and reasonableness, a mere physical gesture at an interview, which would not be represented in a written document, may naturally and gravely affect the intended meaning of a statement. Or, if a preliminary agreement should be arranged verbally, it should be subsequently reduced to writing and assented to by the signatures of the persons concerned, prior to its definite execution.

I have known instances of agreements entered into at interviews by men of high character and eminent ability, intimately familiar with important financial affairs, and cognisant of the value of the rigorous employment of terms, where each subsequently repudiated the interpretation of the other on certain questions which were disused and decisions supposed to be arrived at. Natural ability and conscientiousness form no defence against the ambiguities and misrenderings which colloquial speech, and perhaps defective memory, may involve.

Do not hurry when investing or lend ing money.

3. There should be no hurry in investing or lending: time should be used to survey and think. By this course the lender or investor may sometimes lose a security which it would have been profitable to possess; but in the long run the cultivation of this practice will save him from regret and possibly from loss. The present era is especially marked by "raw haste," which men frequently mistake for quickness of thought and swiftness of judgment, and by precipitate action, which is often dignified, delusively, by the name of energy.

Do Not Borrow Money To Invest

4. It is important that the investor should not purchase beyond his moans by borrowing money for the purpose of obtaining a desired security. It may be expedient to do so on some particularly favourable occasion, but the borrowing should be upon some other investment which is already possessed: better it is, however, to make a practice of refraining, since this transgression of the boundary of prudential and cautious action may tempt the evil spirit of speculation to enter.

Be Patient In Times Of Panic

5. If the investments be sound and prices fall in consequence of some local or extensive panic, patience and serenity of mind should bo preserved. Often, I admit, this is a counsel of perfection, when general credit appears to be crumbling into ruin; but it must be attempted, and one mode lies in the cessation of noticing the agitating records of declining values until their descent be arrested. No man has ever succeeded who has not striven, and at all events reasonably achieved, to gain the mental and moral discipline of retaining his soul in peace: changes of value, violent as well as slight, occurred myriads of times before we invested, and will occur myriads of times again. The rhythmic order of the world and of human affairs show that one set of circumstances will invariably be succeeded by a set of a different type in perpetual iteration and recurrence, and yet be consistent with a general equilibrium. We could not speak with any sense or meaning of fortune did not misfortune exist.

If Of Moderate Means Keep To Commonplace Forms Of Inrestment

6. Lot it always be remembered, once more, that the man of moderate means should sedulously keep to the common forms of investment: it is only the man of comparatively large capital - to whom a misadventure would only signify a minute fraction of his total principal - who can safely afford the chance (without degenerating into a speculator) of a larger profit by entering into the domain of a more specialised finance. But even for him, equally with the minor investor, the principle of the proper distribution of risks is imperative.