CHAP. I.] NATURE AND DESIGN OF THIS WORK. 21 



expect, under the dominion of necessity, an order perceptible to 

 human observation, unless the play of its producing causes is 

 sufficiently simple ; nor, on the other hand, to deem that free 

 agency in the individual is inconsistent with regularity in the 

 motions of the system of which he forms a component unit. 

 Human freedom stands out as an apparent fact of our conscious- 

 ness, while it is also, I conceive, a highly probable deduction of 

 analogy (Chap, xxn.) from the nature of that portion of the 

 mind whose scientific constitution we are able to investigate. 

 But whether accepted as a fact reposing on consciousness, or as 

 a conclusion sanctioned by the reason, it must be so interpreted 

 as not to conflict with an established result of observation, viz. : 

 that phenomena, in the production of which large masses of men 

 are concerned, do actually exhibit a very remarkable degree of 

 regularity, enabling us to collect in each succeeding age the ele- 

 ments upon which the estimate of its state and progress, so far 

 as manifested in outward results, must depend. There is thus no 

 sound objection a priori against the possibility of that species of 

 data which is requisite for the experimental foundation of a 

 science of social statistics. Again, whatever other object this 

 treatise may accomplish, it is presumed that it will leave no 

 doubt as to the existence of a system of abstract principles and of 

 methods founded upon those principles, by which any collective 

 body of social data may be made to yield, in an explicit form, 

 whatever information they implicitly involve. There may, where 

 the data are exceedingly complex, be very great difficulty in ob- 

 taining this information, difficulty due not to any imperfection 

 of the theory, but to the laborious character of the analytical 

 processes to which it points. It is quite conceivable that in many 

 instances that difficulty may be such as only united effort could 

 overcome. But that we possess theoretically in all cases, and 

 practically, so far as the requisite labour of calculation may be 

 supplied, the means of evolving from statistical records the seeds 

 of general truths which lie buried amid the mass of figures, is a 

 position which may, I conceive, with perfect safety be affirmed. 



19. But beyond these general positions I do not venture to 

 speak in terms of assurance. Whether the results which might 

 be expected from the application of scientific methods to statis- 



