94 LECTURES. 



If in our busy time, so full of activity in all directions, we can point 

 out anything as decidedly predominating, we may say that political 

 and natural history are the sciences which occupy us more than any 

 other. The taste for these two branches of knowledge, which are the 

 twin sisters of geography, is now widely and justly prevalent. They 

 have been treated of late with more talent, circumspection, and exact- 

 ness than ever ; and because, to become complete and exact, they 

 need the aid of geography more than of any other discipline, the re- 

 vival and advancement of geography will be a very natural conse- 

 quence of the prevailing tendency. 



Naturalists have of late become more aware of the importance of 

 geographical considerations in connexion with their studies than they 

 ever were before. Plants and animals have been considered in rela- 

 tion to the soil and climate in which they were produced ; and geo- 

 graphers have defined more distinctly the different regions to which 

 every natural production belongs. 



The intimate relations of geography to history have also been made 

 apparent. In former times historians related the deeds of nations and 

 individuals as quite independent of the country in which they were 

 transacted. Scarcely a historian would give even a brief description 

 of the country by way of introduction, and it was only on arriving at a 

 battle-field that they bestowed a little attention on the locality and its 

 geographical features. But in the writings even of the best historian 

 there was no indication to be found that he was aware how the config- 

 uration, climate, and productions of the country in question influence 

 the current of events, and, indeed, the whole character of the national 

 history. This has now been changed, and the whole manner in which 

 history is at present treated has become more geographical, or, I may 

 say, cosmical. Modern historians sliow us more clearly how each 

 nation forms a part of the universal life of the world. And from this 

 necessary alliance between geography and history quite new branches 

 of science have sprung up, of which formerly there were no examples ; 

 above all, that of ethnography, or the history of the distribution of 

 races over the surface of our globe. 



If geography itself was neglected until our days, the history of geo- 

 graphy must, of course, have been utterly unknown. Geography has 

 too often been treated as if it were a science of yesterday, which had 

 no past. For this geographers themselves are to blame ; for they, in 

 describing tlie actual state of countries, have just as seldom entered 

 into their history as historians have entered into their geography. 



Yet no one can justly appreciate the value of existing information 

 who does not know by what exertions it has been acquired. No man 

 can rightly estimate any truth who is not aware of the previous 

 errors through which the way to it led. A geographer ignorant of 

 the history of his science is like the traveller of an Oriental tale, who 

 finds himself transferred by enchantment into the heart of a strange 

 country, without knowing by what means he arrived there. 



If, as I have said, the history of geography has been utterly ne- 

 glected, then I must add, that that most essential part of it, the his- 

 tory of geographical maps, has scarcely ever been thought of. For 

 some time, it is true, every new map of the world or of some portion 



