of nebulae is merely that we may know about nebulae; the object of
the study of inhabitants is that sociological laws may be deduced,
and that, on the foundation of these laws, a better life for the
people may be established. It makes no difference to the nebula
whether it is studied or not, and it has waited long, and is ready to
wait a great while longer; but it is not a matter of indifference to
the inhabitants of Moscow, especially to those unfortunates who
constitute the most interesting subjects of the science of sociology.

The census-taker enters a night lodging-house; in the basement he
finds a man dying of hunger, and he politely inquires his profession,
his name, his native place, the character of his occupation, and
after a little hesitation as to whether he is to be entered in the
list as alive, he writes him in and goes his way.

And thus will the two thousand young men proceed. This is not as it
should be.

Science does its work, and the community, summoned in the persons of
these two thousand young men to aid science, must do its work. A
statistician drawing his deductions from figures may feel indifferent
towards people, but we census-takers, who see these people and who
have no scientific prepossessions, cannot conduct ourselves towards
them in an inhuman manner. Science fulfils its task, and its work is
for its objects and in the distant future, both useful and necessary
to us. For men of science, we can calmly say, that in 1882 there
were so many beggars, so many prostitutes, and so many uncared-for
children. Science may say this with composure and with pride,
because it knows that the confirmation of this fact conduces to the
elucidation of the laws of sociology, and that the elucidation of the