The great authority for this statement, and for the theory he derives from it, is M. Quételet. Now although he conceives that because he calls M. Quételet "confessedly the first statistician in Europe," his conclusions will therefore pass unchallenged, we must observe that a very different opinion of him prevails among those who are more competent judges than either Mr. Buckle or ourselves. His way of applying the theory of probabilities to statistics is rejected even by the French writers ; and the following observations made with reference to him by one of the most celebrated political economists of the age, show the estimation in which his method is held in Germany : —
Of late years an opinion has been gaining ground that statistics have only to deal with political and social facts expressed in figures, without being confined to any particular time. Calculations are made with tables, etc. ; and meanwhile the signification of the figures virtually disappears from the mind, which becomes conscious of it only when the result is obtained. Now for all those facts which are susceptible of it, the mathematical form of expression is undoubtedly the most perfect, and we must endeavour, therefore, to make the mathematical branch of statistics as comprehensive as possible. But one branch of a science is not the science itself. Just as there is no special science in natural philosophy called Microscopia, which combines all observations made through the microscope, so the principle of a science ought never to be deduced from the character of its principal instrument. This restriction would deprive statistics of all scientific unity and interior coherence.[1]
But to return to Mr. Buckle —
"This," says he, "will appear strange to those who believe that human actions depend more on the peculiarities of each individual than on the general state of society."
So suicide ; the number of suicides in every year is about the same, therefore —
. . . in a given state of society a certain number of persons must put an end to their own life. This is the general law ; and the special question as to who shall commit the crime depends of course upon special law ; which, however, in their total action, must obey the large irresistible social law to which they are all subordinate.
- ↑ Roscher, System der Volkswirthschaft, i. 29.
