238 DAVIS— SYSTEMATIC GEOGRAPHY. LAprilS, 



that might be instanced, would be secured if geographers were 

 habituated to treat all such items as forming parts of a whole, and 

 to place every item in its proper place with respect to all others in 

 a well-arranged system of classification. It is sometimes the case 

 that the labors of the systematist are decried ; but it is only when 

 systematization is the master and not the servant of the investigator 

 that it merits condemnation. The orderly arrangement of the 

 events in the earth's long history is the goal of all geological study ; 

 for the facts of physical and structural geology must be dated in 

 terms of geological chronology if their true relation is to be 

 appreciated. So with geography : it stands to reason that any 

 logical scheme for the classification of all the elements that consti- 

 tute the content of geography would be of practical value in treating 

 the innumerable items with which the geographer is concerned. 

 The object of such an arrangement would not be to put facts away, 

 out of sight, but to expose them in orderly fashion so that they can 

 be most readily seen, to arrange them so that they shall illuminate 

 and be illuminated by their neighbors. A result of double value 

 would thus be gained. Every fact would be seen in logical relation 

 to its fellows, and its fellows would be seen in logical relation to it. 

 The attention of the geographer would thus be directed to a 

 broadened consideration of correlations, instead of being allowed 

 to limit itself to a narrow view of isolated and unrelated items. 

 The work of the observer in the field would be greatly aided by 

 the presence in his mind of an ideally full treatment for every kind 

 of item that he encounters ; unless indeed he has the good fortune 

 to come upon an item previously unknown, and in that case the 

 habit of systematic description already formed would come to his 

 assistance in the effort to gain a full understanding of the novel 

 element. There is no other means by which the general principles, 

 the underlying philosophy of geography, can be so clearly set forth 

 as by systematic classification. 



3. The Content of Geography. — The first step in an attempt at 

 classification requires an understanding as to the content of geog- 

 raphy as a whole. Here at the very outset no general agreement can 

 be expected to-day ; but it is well to note that general agreement 

 will probably be reached by following the trend of the progress by 

 which geography has passed through two stages, now to enter upon 

 a third stage of development. A hundred years ago, geography 

 was the study of the earth and its inhabitants ; explanation then 



