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concerned, is only ' necessary ' in the sense that it is a necessary result of certain physical assumptions or experiences. If all the digits tend to occur with equal frequency, and if they are ' independent ' (i. e. if each is associated indifferently with every other), then it is an arithmetical consequence that the averages when arranged in respect of their magnitude and prevalence will display the Law of Facility above indicated. Experience, so far as it can be appealed to, shows that the true randomness of the selection of the digits, i.e. their equally frequent recurrence, and the impartiality of their combination, is very fairly secured in practice. According to the theoretic deduction that whatever may have been the original Law of Facility of the individual results we shall always find the familiar Exponential Law asserting itself as the law of the averages, is fairly justified by experience in such a case.
The further discussion of certain corrections and refinements is reserved to the following chapter.
§ 21. In regard to the three kinds of average employed to test the amount of dispersion, i.e. the mean error, the probable error, and the error of mean square, two important considerations must be borne in mind. They will both recur for fuller discussion and justification in the course of the next chapter, when we come to touch upon the Method of Least Squares, but their significance for logical purposes is so great that they ought not to be entirely passed by at present.
(1) In the first place, then, it must be remarked that in order to know what in any case is the real value of an error we ought in strictness to know what is the position of the limit or ultimate average, for the amount of an error is always theoretically measured from this point. But this is information which we do not always possess. Recurring