ON THE STATISTICAL VIEW OF NATURE. oGl 



result to spring from them ? Had they been conducted 

 under the influence of no useful general idea, our answer 

 would indeed have to be in the negative. But if, as 8. 



General idea 



practice shows, they have been of use, if, in fact, they underlying 

 prove to be in many cases quite indispensable, we may *''"»• 

 ask. What is the idea, the abstract thought, which 

 dominates them ? I will give the answer at once and 

 then fix the aspect with which the present chapter has 

 to deal. It is the conception and doctrine of averages. o. 



Doctrine of 



Although to the general reader nothing may seem to averages, 

 be simpler than a process of counting and of registration, 

 the science of statistics, the systematic collection of large 

 numbers, and the fixing of averages, is comparatively 

 young : it dates from the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, when Sully in France, followed by Eichelieu 

 and Colbert, had organised what may be called the first 

 statistical bureau.^ It emanated from the same spirit 

 which called into existence the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences. Characteristically for the two other nations 

 with which we are mainly concerned in this history, the 



' M. Bldck (loc. cit., p. 25) says : 

 " En France Sully avait ddj^ or- 

 ganise, vers 1602, un cabinet com- 

 plet dc politique ct de finances, qui 

 peut I'tre considere comme le 

 premier bureau de statistique. 

 Les rapports que Sully demandait 

 einbrassaient I'armee, la marine, 

 les finances et un grand nombre 

 de branches de I'adiuinistration, 

 et le resultat de ses investigations 

 se trouve exj)ose dans I'ouvrage 

 ([ui a etd souvent reiniprinn' sous 

 le titre de ' Memoires de Sully.' 

 Kichelieu et Colbert se sent (5gale- 

 inent fait adresser des rapports, 

 auxqut'ls on a puise, dans ces 



VOL. II. 



derniers temps, bien des dldments 

 utiles Ji I'histoire et <\ue la statis- 

 tique pourrait t?galemeiit utiliser." 

 The Romans, who in aiiticiuity may 

 l>e regarded as the forerunners of 

 the French in administrative ability 

 and business-like conduct of State 

 affairs, seem also to have develojjed 

 an extensive sj-stem of registration. 

 Tiie ([uestion has been fully treated 

 by the late Prof. Hildebrand of 

 .lena in the ' Jahrbuch fiir Nationale 

 ()konomie und Statistik ' (186(5), in 

 an article entitled '" Die Amtliche 

 Hevolkerungs-statistik iiu alteu 

 Rom." 



2 N 



