No. 4.] LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 63 



SOME LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 



BY DR. HENRY S. PRITCHETT, BOSTON. 



My object in speaking to you concerninof the census is not 

 so much to present the results of the twelfth census of the 

 United States, which is now being prepared, but rather to 

 call attention to the work of the census ; to indicate the 

 value of the data collected, particularly as it affects those 

 engaged in agriculture ; and, finally, to bring forward cer- 

 tain o-eneral considerations which the results of recent cen- 

 suses have seemed to establish. 



The idea of a census, so far as the enumeration of the 

 population is concerned, comes down to us from antiquity. 

 One of the first of which we have record is that taken by 

 David and mentioned in the twenty-fourth chapter of Second 

 Samuel. The census concerned itself with the enumeration 

 of men capable of bearing arms, and was completed in about 

 nine months, which may be considered rapid work for that 

 day. It revealed a fighting strength in Judah and Israel 

 of about 1,300,000 men, — an exhibit of military resources 

 sufficient to cause the heart of any king to swell with pride. 

 The result was most disastrous, and, as a punishment for 

 the pride and presumption which were displayed, David, 

 who had caused the enumeration to be made, was given a 

 choice of three evils, as the following extract shows : — 



So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him. Shall 

 seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land ? or wilt thou 

 flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? 

 or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, 

 and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. 



And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait : let us fall 

 now into the hand of the Lord ; for his mercies are great : and let 

 me not fall into the hand of man. 



