REUNITED WITH HIS FAMILY IN ENGLAND 211 



very significant words: "The teacher should teach, as 

 well as hear recitations' \ The second book had just one 

 hundred pages, and was published the same year. These 

 two books were later merged into one, which was entitled 

 "Elementary Geography", and afterwards called "New 

 Elements of Geography". In the preface of the 1922 

 edition of the latter is the following tribute to Maury's 

 ideas of pedagogy: "Maury refused to follow the plan 

 of all accepted textbooks of that day. His plan was to 

 present, in simple words and in the form of a story, 

 interesting facts about the different peoples of the earth, 

 their homes, their industries, and the lands where they 

 live; and at the same time to call attention to those 

 physical laws which largely determine the condition, the 

 character, and the industries of a people. . . . When 

 published, these geographies were such a radical de- 

 parture from the old methods that many teachers were 

 not prepared to accept them; but leading educators 

 have gradually come to Maury's position, and to-day the 

 principles that he advocated are endorsed by the Com- 

 mittee of Fifteen of the National Educational Associa- 

 tion". The account of the other books in Maury's 

 geographical series, which were not published until after 

 his return to Virginia, will be found in the next chapter. 

 When Maury left Mexico he had some hope of becom- 

 ing connected with the laying of submarine cables in the 

 Atlantic. But the only opportunity that presented itself 

 was the offer of 1000 pounds for the use of his name in 

 connection with the North Atlantic Cable. Maury was 

 unwilling to agree to this, and the proposition did not 

 materialize. He kept up his interest in such engineering 

 work, however, and in July, 1866 he wrote that he had 

 filed "provisional specifications" for a patent to improve 



