Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/22

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Revenue harpies will get so much the less out of him in Estate Duties.

This short and simple creed relieves the business of investment of most of its difficulties and robs it of all of its interest. An ideal which confines itself to amassing a holding of British Government securities or other unimpeachable investments is very wise and safe, and those who follow it will sleep soundly o' nights; but they will have renounced all possibility of adding to their income by intelligent selection of securities, they will have foregone the joys of adventure which the pursuit of wealth through investment affords, and they will have freed themselves as far as possible from the risks which earn and justify its handsomest rewards. In doing so they will have followed the counsels of the safest prudence, and for those who hate to be bothered about money matters this course is undoubtedly the wisest.

Nevertheless the fact remains that if everybody did so the progress of industry and enterprise would be very severely checked. The more sporting ideal that I have set up gives a chance for the introduction into investment of that spice of adventure which is an almost universal craving of the normal human mind, it makes calls on the intelligence and so creates interest in an otherwise very dull business, and