Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Statistics, Prognostication, Natural Law, Astronomy, Astrology

    From an analysis of marriage statistics argues that marriage is not the result of 'arbitrary volition and chance' but that 'the passions and affections of men are governed by laws as certain as those of the heavenly bodies or any of the phenomena of nature'. Adds that while marriage statistics do not have the predictive certainty of the 'fortune-teller or the astrologist', they can be used to predict the 'acts of numbers of individuals' with 'sufficient certainty for practical purposes'. (211)