STUDY OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 33 



theory of their origin will probably not be found to suit all 



cases." 



The loose reasoning in this case is to be found in those 

 books which attempted to explain Darwin's theory in a few 

 brief paragraphs. 



The theories of the physical geographer have, in fact, been 

 established or partly established as the result of cumulative 

 evidence, and they are often finally established by " the method 

 of successive approximations," thereby differing from many of 

 the theories of the more certain sciences. From the point of 

 view of education, it is this weighing of the evidence which is 

 of so great value to the student, for the process is one which 

 has often to be applied to the affairs of everyday life, and the 

 power of right judgment is of inestimable benefit to its possessor. 

 I may illustrate this by an anecdote recorded by the late Frank 

 Buckland in his Curiosities of Natural History, which refers to 

 the sister science of geology. His father, Dean Buckland, was 

 once lecturing at Oxford on the remains of hyaenas in the 

 Kirkdale caverns of Yorkshire, and among his audience was 

 " one of the most learned judges of the land." Buckland, "after 

 having, with his usual forcible and telling eloquence, put his 

 case to prove not only the former existence of hyaenas in 

 England, but even that they were rapacious, ravenous, and 

 murderous cannibals . . . turned round to the learned lawyer 

 and said, 'And now, what do you think of that, my lord?' 

 ' Such facts,' replied the judge, ' brought as evidence against a 

 man, would be quite sufficient to convict and even hang him.'" 



It is, however, as an aid to the appreciation of the beauties 

 of nature that the study of physical geography differs most 

 markedly from that of other sciences which are usually taught 

 in schools. The artistic temperament may appear to have little 

 to do with the spirit of scientific inquiry ; but one usually 

 finds that the lover of natural beauty has an insight into the 

 meaning of the objects which call forth his admiration, and at 

 all periods of human history the lovers of nature seem to have 

 had a desire to explain what they saw, though the craving for 

 explanation in early days often gave rise to speculations far 

 removed from the truth. 



The appreciation of natural beauty has undoubtedly spread 

 greatly in our country within recent times, and the desire to 

 know something of the changes which brought about the present 



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