io8 GEOGRAPHY 



and rewards them with its medals. But, like nearly all 

 other large geographical societies, its activities are more 

 associated with popularization than with research; 

 and the same is true of several smaller geographical 

 societies elsewhere in France. Certain societies of com- 

 mercial geography have also been founded, but their 

 publications seldom contain anything more than an 

 elementary geographical basis for studies that are largely 

 of a statistical or economical nature. 



The great compilers, MALTE-BRUN early in the igth 

 century and RECLUS near its close, each produced a 

 "Geographic universelle" in many volumes that will 

 endure as monuments to the authors' patience and eru- 

 dition; but these works were completed before the 

 philosophy of evolution, inorganic and organic, had 

 given to geography its modern scientific spirit, and they 

 no longer serve as models for geographic treatment. 



In more recent years the higher study of geography 

 in France has advanced in two directions : first in phys- 

 ical geography, under the inspiration of DE LA No 

 and DE MARGERIE, whose "Formes du Terrain " (1888) 

 revealed new lines of research in an old subject, and later 

 under the leadership of the eminent geologist, DE LAP- 

 PARENT, whose "Lemons de geographic physique" (1896) 

 attracted renewed attention to the modern aspects of 

 the study of land forms; secondly in descriptive geography, 

 under the leadership of VIDAL DE LA BLACHE, whose 

 earlier training was in history. In the first of these direc- 

 tions, BARRE has prepared an excellent local work, " L'ar- 

 chitecture du sol de la France" (1903), and DE MARTONNE 

 has produced a systematic work, "Traite* de Geographic 

 physique" (1907, 1913), which is today recognized as 

 of standard value. But it is in the second direction that 

 geography has recently flourished in France; for, although 

 its leader has now retired from teaching, nearly all the 



