670 GEOGRAPHY 



opportunity of showing how the settlement and development of 

 new lands can best be carried out in the light of the permanent 

 relationships between land and people discovered by the study of 

 the state of matters of long-settled areas at the present day and 

 in the past. 1 



The practical politician, unfortunately, thinks little of geographical 

 principles, and hitherto he has usually neglected them utterly. 

 Many burning questions that have disturbed the good relations and 

 retarded the progress of nations, even when they did not burst into 

 the conflagration of war, would never have got alight had the con- 

 sequences of some apparently trifling neglect, or some careless action, 

 been understood beforehand as clearly by the man of affairs as by 

 the student of geographical principles. Perhaps, when geography 

 has obtained the status in the world of learning to which its ideals 

 and achievements entitle it, the geographer may even be invited, 

 when the occasion demands, to assist by his advice in saving his 

 country from extravagance or disaster. 



1 For a development of this suggestion see the author's New Lands, London, 

 Charles Griffin, 1901. 



