dangerous thing," other than Dr. Arnold's maxim, "Where it is our duty
to act it is also our duty to learn"?

(v) We have not been careful to avoid asking for details of which we are
well aware that the statistics do not now exist. We have thought it our
duty rather to point out the information necessary for arriving at right
conclusions than to mislead our readers by pretending that it is
possible to form judgments and act properly without taking the trouble
to collect information which is really necessary. This is no
contradiction of the argument which we set forth that partial
information is better than none, but it does warn the surveyor that
blanks in the forms leave him not fully equipped, and that steps ought
to be taken to secure information without which his conclusions are
uncertain.




CHAPTER III.

STATION DISTRICT SURVEY.

THE WORK TO BE DONE, AND THE FORCE TO DO IT.


Missionary work is presented to us here at home mainly at two points;
the one, work at a mission station, the other, the condition and needs
of a country or of a continent. In the one case we hear a great deal
about the missionary's life and work; in the other we hear about great
problems, religious, moral, social, and very little about the facts of