PRESENT PROBLEMS OF GEOGRAPHY 669 



men of the first rank as professors, who are not only channels of 

 instruction, but masters of research as well. In the United Kingdom 

 there are lecturers on geography at several universities and many 

 colleges; and, although they have done good work, the system 

 adopted fails, in my opinion, on a practical point, - - the lecturers 

 are so inadequately paid that they cannot afford to give their whole 

 time or their undivided attention to the subject with which they 

 are charged. In such conditions progress cannot be rapid, and 

 research is almost impossible. The absence of any well-paid posts, 

 by attaining which a geographer would be placed in a position 

 equivalent to that of a successful chemist or mathematician or 

 botanist, kills ambition. The man with his income to make cannot 

 afford to give himself wholly to such a study, however great his 

 predilection for it. The man with as much money as he needs rarely 

 chooses " to scorn delights and live laborious days;" and with some 

 bright exceptions - - he has a tendency, when he turns to science at 

 all, to study it rather for his own satisfaction than for the advance 

 of the subject or the help of his fellows. We want some adequate 

 inducement for solid scientific workers, well trained in general 

 culture, and fitted to come to the front in any path they may select; 

 to devote their w r hole attention - - and the whole attention of such 

 men is a tremendous engine - - to the problems of geography. The 

 laborer is worthy of his hire, and the services of the most capable 

 men cannot reasonably be expected if remuneration equivalent to 

 that offered to men of equal competence in other subjects is not 

 available. At a few American and several German universities such 

 men can receive instruction from professors who are masters of the. 

 science, free to undertake research themselves, and to initiate their 

 students into the methods of research, - - the best training of all. 

 If the time should come when there are, perhaps, a dozen highly 

 paid professorships in English-speaking countries, several dozen 

 aspirants will be found, including, we may hope, a few more gifted 

 than their masters, all qualifying for the positions, stimulated by 

 rivalry, and full of the promise of progress. This is not an end, but 

 the means to an end. Rapid progress is impossible without the 

 stimulus of the intercourse of keenly interested and equally in- 

 structed minds. Geography, like other sciences, has to fight its way 

 through battles of controversy, and smooth its path by wise com- 

 promises and judicious concessions, before its essential theory can 

 be established and universally accepted. We can already see, though 

 somewhat dimly, the great principles on which it depends, and they 

 are becoming clearer year by year. As they are being recognized, they 

 may be applied in a provisional way to current problems of practical 

 life. The world is not yet so fully dominated by the highest civiliza- 

 tion, nor so completely settled, as to deprive geographers of an 



