GEIKIE ON THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY. 95 



lines will be found to be still more generalized, and a crowd of details 

 and names that occupied a place on the wall-map can no longer find 

 room on the much smaller delineation of the country upon the globe. 

 The lesson that was enforced in passing from the large parish plan to 

 the county map, and from the county map to the general wall-map of 

 the country, may now again be dwelt upon in advancing from the 

 wall-map to the globe. And thus, by a continuous chain of illustra- 

 tion, the minds of the learners are led upward and outward from their 

 school surroundings to realize the shape and dimensions of the earth. 



In bringing to a close my remarks on the elementary stage of geo- 

 graphical teaching, let me allude to one great advantage which the 

 method of instruction here advocated seems to me to possess. In too 

 many cases the education of the young never advances much beyond 

 the elementary stage. If the geography-lessons have consisted of 

 mere pages of definitions and statistics mechanically learned by rote, 

 they are pretty sure to be soon in great part forgotten, and they leave 

 little or no permanent influence behind them. But if such a system 

 as I have sketched be followed, a lasting benefit can not but remain 

 on the minds and characters of the young learners, even though most 

 of the facts that were familiar enough at school should eventually slip 

 out of their memory. Trained to use their eyes, and to reflect upon 

 what they observe, they start in the race of life with those faculties 

 quickened that tell powerfully on success. They are furnished, too, 

 with a source of perennial pleasure in that capacity for the percep- 

 tion and enjoyment of Nature which these early lessons will have 

 fostered. 



Fully to discuss advanced geographical education as it deserves 

 would require an ample and exhaustive treatise. This it is no part of 

 my present plan to attempt. What I wish to do is rather to show 

 how the same guiding ideas may be pursued from the elementary into 

 and through the advanced stage. The latter is broadly characterized 

 by the iise of class-books or readers, by the practice of written exer- 

 cises and essays, and by greater precision, detail, and breadth in the 

 manner of treatment. The line to be pursued will largely depend 

 upon the individual predilections of the teacher himself. In some 

 cases the historical, in others the literary, in others the scientific aspect 

 will be most congenial. It is well that insight into each of these sides 

 of geography should be gained by the pupils. But, above all, the in- 

 struction must be earnest and thorough. I come back once more to 

 the idea expressed at the beginning of these chapters that, in the 

 higher stages as well as in the lower, the success of the teacher of 

 geography depends upon his own firm grasp of his subject, upon the 

 living interest he takes in it, and upon the sympathy which he can 

 awaken in the minds and hearts of the young. 



