1902.] DAVIS — SYSTEMATIC GEOGRAPHY. 239 



made a very small part of description, and even a teleological 

 correlation of the organic and the inorganic divisions of the subject 

 had not been introduced as a well-defined characteristic of its 

 methods. With the progress of science during the nineteenth 

 century, explanation came to constitute a larger and larger share of 

 the descriptive chapters of geography ; and from the time of Ritter, 

 geography has been very commonly defined as the study of the 

 earth in relation to its inhabitants, the relationship being exposed 

 during the second stage of progress in the light of teleology, of 

 which abundant traces may be seen to this day. 



The third stage of geographical progress is marked by the 

 introduction of two new principles during the last third of the 

 nineteenth century. It thus came to be recognized that explanation 

 must be systematically sought for in every department of the 

 subject ; for river courses as well as for winds and ocean currents ; 

 for moraines as well as for sand dunes ; and it is further recognized 

 that the relationship existing between the earth and its inhabitants 

 must be explained under the broad principles of evolution. The 

 earth with its lands and waters was not arranged for the convenience 

 of its inhabitants ; its inhabitants have had to learn, by more or 

 less conscious experiment, to live upon the earth as they found it. 

 As in so many other sciences, the evolutionary philosophy is of 

 enormous practical import in geography. If the earth has not been 

 expressly fitted to the convenience of its inhabitants, but if the 

 inhabitants have had gradually to fit themselves to their slowly 

 changing surroundings, how essential is it that we should study 

 those surroundings minutely, with all the intelligence that has been 

 awakened in the later days of man's history, in order to take the 

 best advantage of them ; how important is it that we should look 

 carefully into the real nature of things, so as to avoid an environ- 

 ment that involves a hopeless struggle against the forces of nature, 

 and to choose instead an environment in which the inexhaustible 

 forces of nature will work to our advantage. With the adoption of 

 the evolutionary pliilosophy, the content of geography can no longer 

 be defined as the relation of earth and man, but as the relation of 

 earth and life. The cleared roadway of a colony of pillaging ants 

 becomes as properly a subject of geographical study as a railroad 

 that connects centres of human population. Elementary geography 

 may still deal with the simplest salient facts and place man con- 

 spicuously in the foreground ; more advanced geography may include 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XLI. 170. P. PRINTED SEPT. 23, 1902. 



