A PHILOSOPHY OF GEOGRAPHY 593 



all provinces of psychology! Occupations affect mental states to a 

 great extent, and these often depend upon geography. Health, often 

 determined by drainage, swamps, ozone — how well do we know to what 

 extent it can make or unmake our minds ! 



Philosophy, which may be briefly defined as an attempt at formulat- 

 ing the universe, utilizes the material results of all fields of knowledge 

 and science, and, in so far as these are related to geography, in so far 

 is philosophy also associated. For the names of philosophers who have 

 been influenced by geographical problems and conditions, one has but to 

 turn the pages of the history of geography, and see the names of Thales, 

 Aristotle, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Bacon, Eitter, Tyndall, Darwin, Comte. 

 What can, and has, more radically shaped theories concerning the ulti- 

 mate and the universe than the attempts at the solution of such prob- 

 lems as uniformitarianism, diastrophism and vulcanism? 



Eeligions may not have had their origins in natural phenomena, yet 

 the influence of these has often played a wonderful part. From the 

 Himalayan austerity, the solitude of tropic forests, the unmastered 

 floods of great rivers — from such tremendous natural phenomena came 

 the Hindoo religion, a nature worship tinged with the melancholy of 

 future oblivion. In Hindoo mythology the lofty mountains are invested 

 with great sanctity and thousands of pilgrims journey year after year to 

 the holy sources of the Ganges. From the cruel desert came the idea 

 of Mohammedanism, of eternal bliss, an unending dream of sensuous 

 delight attained by the faithful after the privations of a desert life. 

 Ancient Jewish religion was much affected by the geographical factor. 

 Wliere, too, did the puritans dwell and what was the type of their 

 religion? And how has commerce, born of a geographic source, in- 

 fluenced the religions of men ? 



J. A. Symonds says : " In their early ignorance of cause, the Greek 

 wondered at everything. When thunder terrified them they attributed 

 their own nature to the phenomenon, and they conceived of Heaven as 

 a vast body which gave notice of its anger by lightning and thunderings. 

 Their sun was called a shepherd, in the early myths, and the clouds his 

 sheep. It was easy for them to make a god of the sea — a husky-voiced 

 and turbulent old man whose form none might clearly know because he 

 changed so often and was so secret in his ways, who shook the earth in 

 anger and had the white-maned billows of the deep for horses." All 

 earliest religions at least had their nature worship. The rain made food 

 grow ; the sun gave warmth ; the thunder-storms could put an end to a 

 long drought. Then, there is a minor nature worship that deals with 

 rivers and springs, with trees and groves, with rocks and stones. The 

 spring was haunted by nymphs, the oak inhabited by a dryad. The Nile 

 and the Ganges were holy. England is full of " sacred hills " which 

 once received prayers and offerings. High places were hallowed in all 

 lands. 



