E.— CEOriTJAPHY. 105 



till the outbreak of the war, was due to the fact that they were, 

 economically though not politically, of the nature of colonies in rela- 

 tion to the industrialisod West, were, fundamentally speaking, the 

 ccjLiivalents of Imperial Rome's corn-producing lands in North Africa 

 and the Danubian plains. The chaos in Eastern Europe is thus having 

 a reflex disturbing effect upon the West. The West has lost an 

 important market, but that is perhaps in itself less important than 

 the fact that over a large tract of European land man and his environ- 

 ment have been thrown out of gear, a catastrophic condition which 

 inevitably disturbs equilibrium elsewhere. Just as in the later days 

 of the Roman Empire disturbances in the marginal corn-producing 

 lands shook and ultimately overthrew the centre, so are the centres 

 of Western European civilisation to-day trembling under the impact of 

 shocks emanating from the East. We can well understand, therefore, 

 how it is that there are those who believe that the focus of civilisation 

 is destined to undergo another shift, and that the day of the pre- 

 dominance of North-Western Europe is drawing to a close. 



The subject is not one which can be discussed here. But if I 

 may sum up briefly the points I have been trying to make, I would 

 say that the human geographer should have before him a twofold 

 purpose. In the first place he should strive to show that the deduc- 

 tions which the biologists have slowly and painfully laid down in the 

 course of the last sixty years apply, though with an essential differ- 

 ence — which requires careful definition — to the life of man. Second, 

 he should use his precise knowledge of the surface of the earth to 

 work out detailed applications of those deductions. In other words, 

 human geography is the biology of man, and, on account of man's 

 vast power of modifying his environment, necessitates a fuller know- 

 ledge of that environment than can be required of the biologist in the 

 narrower sense. Investigations along these lines would, I think, 

 promote greatly the interests of geography as a whole, both by making 

 clear to the general public its value and in justifying that intensive 

 study of the surface relief and the associated phenomena which must 

 always remain its basis. 



