786 KEPOBT — 1887. 



which explorations of an adventurous nature can Le made diminish more and more, 

 and as scientific research taies the place of that of a ruder nature the chances of 

 excitement grow perceptibly less. Indeed, when we look upon the knowledge 

 possessed by the ancients and study their cosmogony we cannot but feel the loss 

 we have sustained in approaching the truth. The poetic halo with which every- 

 thing was encircled, the deep shadows and gloom, have gradually been dispersed and 

 dispelled, together with all the distant and uncertain light which gave so much scope 

 to the imagination, and we now view the hard stern realities of fact, brilliant and 

 gay in their colouring, but leaving no room for fancy, or for a change of ideas — 

 always the same vivid rigidity of outline which admits of no two opinions. It is 

 like the change of scenery from our own beautiful cloudj^ island, where the 

 tints and shades change from hour to hour, and where the grey and purple dis- 

 tances leave so much to the imagination, to the bright scenes of the Mediterranean 

 shores, where everything is bathed in intense sunlight, and distinctness of outline 

 reigns supreme, where there is no possibilitj' as to doubt. 



In each case we may balance the advantages and disadvantages ; but as we have 

 gained in knowledge so we are losing in understanding. We are fast losing our 

 human nature and are becoming machines, and we call it being civilised. We are 

 drifting into a condition in which we learn nothing of ourselves or by our own 

 individual efforts ; we are coming to a time when, as we know more about science, 

 and are better educated in arts, we know less about mankind, and are the less able 

 to assist in gaining knowledge for the world ; all power of doing so is day by day 

 becoming vested in the hands of a few scientific men, on whose word we have to rely. 

 In this progress we are losing all we used to hold most dear ; the desire of living 

 for others is departing, and with it hospitality, chivalry, enthusiasm, unselfishness, 

 and because we are unable to exercise the talents given to us they rust and corrode. 

 No doubt we are able to seek other channels for our energies of mind, hut how are 

 we to exert our physical powers for the benefit of man ? In days of yore it 

 was open to any man of spirit and strength and activity to set out in quest 

 of adventures of the imknown for the assistance of his "fellow-men, to relieve 

 the world of its monsters, to risk everything for others. But those days of daruig 

 are now gone by ; the doubt, uncertainty, and mystery attached to unknown danger 

 are no longer to be met with, and though the same chances are always pre- 

 sented to human nature to practise self-denial, they are now, though more difBcult 

 perhaps, of a passive instead of an active nature, and do not so distinctly belong to 

 the domain of geography as they did in olden times. 



As the people of olden times are to those of the present day, so may we 

 consider the child to the man ; and we adults in this assembly must recollect "that, 

 however strong may be our emotions and passions at the present time, thej are but 

 of a mild and vapid nature when compared with the aspirations and feelings of 

 youth. Each prosaic-looking child is full of poetic and romantic feeUng, to which 

 as a rule utterance is never given, but which, nevertheless, cannot be rudely 

 shattered without injury to the mind, and which, if taken advantage of, may assist 

 greatly in training the mind and developing a love of geography. 



It should be a matter of great interest to those who instruct in geography to 

 study its gradual development from the earliest date and to watch the progress 

 it has made. And this is not a matter of very great difhculty, for as geography is 

 the knowledge of common things, and the ancients were more experienced observers 

 than ever we may hope to be, the earhest records we possess are full of geographical 

 accounts. In the books of Moses, three thousand years ago, we obtain our first 

 recorded view of the cosmogony of the ancients, at which time the world is sup- 

 posed to be a flat disc with water surrounding the laud, and this idea pervades 

 later books, and is dwelt upon in the Psalms of David. Homer also held a similar 

 view, and to him is accorded by Strabo the honour of being the founder of 

 geographical science, because he excelled in the .sublimity of his poetry and his 

 experience of social life : and a reason why he excelled is carefully related. He 

 could not ha-se accomplished it had he not exerted himself to become not only 

 acquainted with historical facts, but also with the various regions of the inhabited 

 land and sea, some intimately, others in a more general manner. ' For otherwise 



