198 NATURAL BEAUTY 



And now we reach the point I wish to make. 

 If this account of the Earth which physicists and 

 biologists give us be true, then we geographers 

 should take a less material and a more spiritual view 

 of the Earth than we have done, and should, like 

 primitive people all the world over, regard her as 

 Mother-Earth, and recognise our intimate connec- 

 tion with her. Primitive peoples everywhere regard 

 the Earth as alive and as their Mother. And so 

 intensely do they feel this liveness that many will 

 not run the plough through the soil from dislike of 

 lacerating the bosom of Mother-Earth. They see 

 plants and trees spring up out of her, and these 

 plants and trees providing them with fruits and 

 seeds, leaves and roots, upon which to live. And 

 they quite naturally look upon her as their Mother. 

 And we men of the more advanced races have still 

 more cause to consider her as our Mother, for we 

 now know that not only the plants and trees but 

 we ourselves sprang from her — as indeed we are 

 nourished by her daily, eating her plants or the 

 animals which feed on her plants. And as we judge 

 of a lily, not by its origin, the ugly bulb, but by the 

 climax, the exquisite flower ; so we should not judge 

 of the Earth by its origin, the fiery mist, but by its 

 issue — ardent human fellowship. And if we thus 

 judge her we shall find her a mother worthy of our 

 affection. 



So the first point I have to put before you is 

 that we geographers should regard the object of our 

 science not as a magnified billiard-ball, but as a 

 living being — as Mother-Earth. Not as hard, un- 

 impressionable, dull, and inert, but as live, supple, 



