Science in Public Affairs 



mind, does not stop short of the loftiest social 

 and civic idealism. This tendency is abundantly 

 illustrated in the lives of the great founders of 

 modern geography. It is seen in Alexander von 

 Humboldt, who continued and completed his geo- 

 graphical career as counsellor of state and co- 

 adjutor with his more humanist brother, Wilhelm, 

 in the organisation of educational institutions. It 

 is seen in Karl Ritter, who, as he progressed in 

 the writing of his great work, was driven more 

 and more to an emphasis of the historical factor. 

 But it is seen most of all in the life and work 

 of Elisee Reclus, whose recent loss we deplore, 

 and whose place in the history of the science it 

 is too soon to estimate, but there are those who 

 believe it will be a culminating one. The eighteen 

 massive volumes of his Geographic Universelle were 

 but the preliminary training and preparation for 

 his magnum opus, his " Social Geography," happily 

 completed before his death, though as yet un- 

 published. But the general character of the work 

 may be foretold by those who were familiar with 

 his riper thoughts. It is safe to assert that his 

 "Social Geography" will, more fully than ever 

 before, demonstrate the continuity and correlation 

 between, on the one hand, the destructive action 

 of man on the surface of the planet, and on 

 the other, the historical and the contemporary 

 facts of human degeneration and civic degrada- 

 tion. But it will also, unless the work belies the 

 character of its author, demonstrate also with 

 unique experience and conviction a continuity of 



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