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The neglect of insurance upon shipping, however, in the same

manner as upon houses, is, in most cases, the effect of no such

nice calculation, but of mere thoughtless rashness, and

presumptuous contempt of the risk.

The contempt of risk, and the presumptuous hope of success, are

in no period of life more active than at the age at which young

people choose their professions. How little the fear of

misfortune is then capable of balancing the hope of good luck,

appears still more evidently in the readiness of the common

people to enlist as soldiers, or to go to sea, than in the

eagerness of those of better fashion to enter into what are

called the liberal professions.