ON THE STATISTICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 561 



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 s. 



General idea 



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



enumera- 



prove to be in many cases quite indispensable, we may tion - 

 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. 9. 



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 Richelieu 

 and Colbert, had organised what may be called the first 

 statistical bureau. 1 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 



1 M. Block (loc. cit., p. 25) says : 

 " En France Sully avait deja or- 

 ganise, vers 1602, un cabinet com- 

 plet de politique et de finances, qui 

 peut etre considere comme le 

 premier bureau de statistique. 

 Les rapports que Sully demandait 

 embrassaient 1'armee, la marine, 

 les finances et un grand nombre 

 de branches de 1'administration, 

 et le re"sultat de sea investigations 

 se trouve expose dans 1'ouvrage 

 qui a e'te' souvent re"imprime sous 

 le titre de 'Memoires de Sully." 

 Richelieu et Colbert se sont egale- 

 ment fait adresser des rapports, 



derniers temps, bien des e'le'ments 

 utiles a 1'histoire et que la statis- 

 tique pourrait egalenient utiliser." 

 The Romans, who in antiquity may 

 be regarded as the forerunners of 

 the French in administrative ability 

 and business-like conduct of State 

 affairs, seem also to have developed, 

 an extensive system of registration. 

 The question has been fully treated 

 by the late Prof. Hildebrand of 

 Jena in the ' Jahrbuch f iir Nationale 

 Okonomie und Statistik' (1866), in 

 an article entitled " Die Amtliche 

 Bevolkerungs-statistik im alten 

 Rom." 



auxquels on a puise, dans ces 



VOL. II. 2 N 



