ON THE STATISTICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 617 



homme moyen as to studying the deviations from this 

 ideal standard. " How little," says Mr Galton, 1 " is con- 

 veyed by the bald statement that the average income of 

 English families is 100 a-year, compared with what we 

 should learn if we were told how English incomes were 

 distributed." A crowd of data furnish for the astronomer 

 the material out of which he has to choose the most 

 probable, the correct figure ; a crowd of observations 

 furnish for the naturalist the material from which he 

 has to learn how nature deviates from her types and 

 exhibits variations which are the factors of change and 

 development. Thus, under the hands of Mr Galton, the 

 Law of Error becomes a Law of Distribution, and the 

 whole machinery of the doctrine of probabilities, " excogi- 

 tated for the use of astronomers and others who are 

 concerned with extreme accuracy of measurement, and 

 without the slightest idea, until the time of Quetelet, that 

 they might be applicable to human measures, 2 become 

 the only tools by which an opening can be cut through 

 the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path 

 of those who pursue ' the science of man.' " 



Hence while most people regard statistics as dull, 

 they become for the naturalist and student of human 

 nature " full of beauty and interest " ; 3 there is scarcely 

 anything so apt to impress the imagination as the 

 wonderful form of cosmic order expressed by the 

 " law of frequency of error." " It would have been 

 personified by the Greeks, and deified if they had 

 known of it." * 



1 'Natural Inheritance,' p. 35. I 3 Ibid., p. 62. 

 - Ibid., pp. 55, 62. 4 Ibid., p. 66. 



