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178 Q U E Q U E meteorological observations, and in 1839 he started regular observa- tions of the periodical phenomena of vegetation, especially the flowering of plants. The results are given in various memoirs published by the Brussels Academy and in his works Sur Ic Climat de la Belgique and Sur la Physique du Globe (the latter forms vol. xiii. of the Annales, 1861). He is, however, chiefly known by the statistical investigations which occupied him from 1823 onward. In 1835 he published his principal work, Sur I'Homme et le Developpe- ment de ses Facultis, ou Essai de Physique Sociale (2d ed. 1869), containing a resume of his statistical researches on the develop- ment of the physical and intellectual qualities of man, and on the "average man," both physically and intellectually considered. In 1846 he brought out his Lettres d S. A. R. le Due rfynant de Saxe- Coburg et Gotha sur la the'orie des probabilites appliqute aux sciences morales et politiqucs (of which Sir J. Herschel wrote a full account in the Edinburgh Review), and in 1848 Du Systime Social et des Lois qui le rtgissent (dedicated to the prince consort). In these works he shows how the numbers representing the individual qualities of man are grouped round the numbers referring to the "average man " in a manner exactly corresponding to that in which single results of observation are grouped round the mean result, so that the principles of the theory of probabilities may be applied to statistical researches on the subjects. These ideas are further developed in various papers in the Bulletin and in his L'Antliropo- mitrie, ou Mcsure des differences Facultis de I'Homme (1871), in which he lays great stress on the universal applicability of the binomial law, according to which the number of cases in which, for instance, a certain height occurs among a large number of individuals is repre- sented by an ordinate of a curve (the binomial) . symmetrically situated with regard to the ordinate representing the mean result (average height). A detailed Essai sur la Vie et Jes Travaux de L.A.J. Quetelet, by his pupil and assistant K. Mailly, was published at Brussels in 1875. QUETTA, a valley in Baluchistan, and the most northern district in the province. It embraces an area of about 90 square miles, and is situated near the Afghan frontier between 30 2' and 30 14' N. lat. and between 66 55' and 67 E. long. The general aspect of the country is hilly, rocky, and sterile, particularly towards the north ; but in many parts the soil is rich and good, yielding wheat, rice, madder, tobacco, and lucerne, besides numerous grasses. The district has abundant orchards, furnishing grapes, apples, pears, pomegranates, figs, <fec. ; melons and all kinds of English vegetables are also largely cultivated. The valley is watered by the Lora stream. Wild sheep, goats, and hogs abound in the hills of the district. The climate appears to be healthy and the tem- perature moderate, ranging from 30 Fahr. in the winter to about 80 in the summer. Since 1876 Quetta has been the seat of a British political officer. Its occupation secures the Pishin valley, holds in check border tribes, and keeps open the roads of the Kojak and Gwaja passes over the Khwaja Amran range leading to Kandahar. During the Afghan compaigns of 1878-80 Quetta formed the base of operations of the southern column. In 1879 a railway was commenced to Quetta, with a view to its being pushed on to Kandahar. The line starts from the Sind railway system at Sukkur and runs via Jacobabad to Sibi, and is now in course of construction to Quetta ; it is to be termed the Sind-Pishin railway. Quetta (or Shal, meaning " the fort " or " kot "), the capital, is situated at the northern extremity of the valley, near the head of the Bolan Pass and close to the Pishin valley, at an elevation of 5900 feet above the level of the sea. The town is surrounded by a mud wall ; in its centre, on an artificial mound, is a fort which commands a very fine and extensive view of the neighbouring valley. QUEVEDO VILLEGAS, FRANCISCO (1580-1645), the greatest satiric writer of Spain, was born in 1580 at Madrid, where his father, who came from the mountains of Burgos, was secretary to Anne of Austria, fourth wife of Philip II. Early left an orphan and without other protection than that of his guardian, D. Agustin de Villanueva, protonotary of Aragon, the young man educated himself and chose his own career. Full of zeal to conquer all knowledge, he betook himself to Alcala, the nearest university to Madrid, where in a few years he covered a vast field of study, acquiring a knowledge of classical and modern tongues of Italian and French, Hebrew and Arabic, of philosophy (or what passed by that name), theology, civil law, and economics. His masters were astounded at his erudition, and his fame reached beyond Spain ; at twenty-one he was in correspondence with Justus Lipsius on questions of Greek and Latin literature, and the great scholar loaded him with praises and treated him as an equal. These years of study left a great and permanent influence on Quevedo's style ; to them are due the pedantic traits and mania for quotations which strike and offend us in most of his works. The licentiate of Alcala next betook himself to the court and mingled with the corrupt society that surrounded Philip III., or rather the duke of Lerma, then the real ruler of Spain. The cynical greed of the ministers, the meanness of their flatterers, the corruption of all the royal officers, the financial scandals, the shamelessness of the women, brutalized by the low place given to them in family life and by the practices of a purely formalist religion, formed a spectacle which soon awoke in Quevedo his talent as a painter of manners. At Madrid or at Valladolid, where the court resided from 1601 to 1605, he mingled freely with these intrigues and disorders, and soon lost the purity of his morals, but not his independence, his uprightness and integrity. From this period date his first Dreams (Sueilos), satirical fantasies in which the spirit and manner of Lucian and Dante are combined. " Dream of Skulls," "The Possessed Alguazil," "The Stables of Pluto," "The Madhouse of Love," such are the titles of these earliest writings composed in 1607-8, which in some degree recall the " Dances of Death " of the later Middle Ages ; the author is transported in sleep to hell, where he assists at the long and lamentable procession of men of all conditions, professions, and trades who move toward their punishment, clad in their most characteristic vices and absurdities. The series was continued from 1612 to 1622 by " The World as it is " and the " Review of Witticisms." With the Dreams may be associated certain works of similar scope and tone, e.g., To every one according to his Works, and Fortune made Reasonable, where Jupiter in concert with Fortune, whom he has caused to stop her wheel, orders all kinds of men instantly to resume their true nature and the condition they deserve : thus the physician becomes a hangman, the accused a judge, the painted lady a duenna and witch, and so forth. In 1609 Quevedo entered into relations with the famo D. Pedro Tellez Giron, duke of Osuna, with whom hi fortunes were linked for more than ten years. The duke, celebrated for his bold enterprises of war against th Queen of the Adriatic, for his share in the conspiracy o Venice in 1618, for the luxurious splendour of his vicere; rule in Sicily and Naples, and finally for his terrible di grace, recognized Quevedo's unusual merits and made hi his secretary. Thus between 1611 and 1620 he learn politics, the one science which he had perhaps till the neglected, initiated himself into the questions tha divided Europe, and penetrated the designs and ambition of the neighbours of Spain as well as the secret history o: the guilty intriguers protected by the favour of Philip III. The result was that he wrote several political works, particularly a lengthy treatise, The Policy of God and the Government of Christ, in which he lays down the duties of kings by displaying to them how Christ has governed His church. The disgrace of the duke of Osuna (1620) reached Quevedo, who was arrested and exiled to La Torre de Juan Abad in New Castile, where he possessed lands and of which he afterwards became seignior. Quevedo, though involved in the process against the