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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1051 



will depend upon the definiteness with 

 which its conclusions are stated and illus- 

 trated."^ The rich and sometimes noble 

 and rousing periods of Ratzel leave us often 

 in the jungle of thought. But he made a 

 trail in the jungle, and we who follow the 

 trail may not blame him for unexplored 

 corners of the forest. What Ratzel thinks 

 about definite knowledge appears in his 

 criticism of the so-called "climatic philos- 

 ophers."* Here too Brunhes adds his call 

 for precision: 



How does the climate influence us ... it is 

 just as necessary here, as elsewhere, perhaps more 

 necessary, to rejuvenate current assumptions hy 

 analyzing them, for they are far too slipshod and 

 superflcial.5 



This call for definiteness presses on every 

 student of geographic influence, be the 

 phase climatic or other. It is not that we 

 can draw mathematical conclusions in any 

 science of man, but sharp eyes and good 

 logic will at least lift us from chaos to 

 order. 



We are thus under bond to work this field 

 for the perfection of essential geography. 

 But we owe a further debt, or rather, there 

 is a mutual exchange of help in which we 

 must not fail of our part. Geography 

 offers help and cooperation to all sciences 

 that deal with man, anthropology, ethnol- 

 ogy, history, sociology, economies, psychol- 

 ogy and comparative religion, and from 

 each of these geography will gather data 

 for its own perfecting. 



The historian, for example, needs from 

 the geographer a more full knowledge of 

 environmental working, and the geographer 

 receives in turn much from the historian. 

 The old geography knew little of the causal 

 and historical, and some of the old history 

 might just as well have been staged on a 



3"W. Z. Eipley, Pol. Sci. Quar., 10, 640. 

 * ' ' Anthropogeographie, ' ' I., 83-84. 

 s J. Brunhes, Inaugural lecture, Soot. Geog. 

 Mag., 29, 312. 



flat platform projected into the inter- 

 planetary ether. 



If history is to strike deep roots into the 

 earth, if it is to set forth with full discern- 

 ment, the moulding, moods, motives and 

 movements of men, the historian will need 

 help from the geographer; and the his- 

 torian, sceptical of generalizations that are 

 too easy and scorning overstatement, will 

 respond with open hand to every real offer- 

 ing of the geographer. 



When geography was poorer than to- 

 day, Parkman wrote the human story out 

 of its environment. James Bryce has 

 always and without stint placed geography 

 in the running with historical movements. 

 And if the generalizations of Bryce, like 

 those of Ratzel, are sometimes tinged with 

 vagueness, let us blame, not the historian of 

 broad outlook, but the geographer whose 

 work is yet in arrears. Other examples are 

 not wanting. Winsor, in dedicating his 

 Mississippi Basin to Mr. Markham, then 

 President of the Royal Geographical Soci- 

 ety, writes of environment, 



I would not say that there are not other com- 

 pelling influences but no other control is so 

 steady.6 



Mr. Edward John Payne has written a 

 "History of the New World called Amer- 

 ica. ' ' Being no historian, I do not know the 

 craft's estimate of that work, but I am 

 astounded at the author's deep and broad 

 knowledge of environment in the lands 

 whose story he tells. The surface, the cli- 

 mate, the possibilities of cereal production 

 and of the domestication of certain animals 

 appear in such wise in relation to early 

 American civilization, to the arts and 

 habits of the people, as to stir the geog- 

 rapher to admiration. Whether all of 

 Payne's conclusions stand fire or not, he 

 gives an example of effort aimed at preci- 



6 ' ' Mississippi Basin, ' ' Justin Winsor, follow- 

 ing title page. 



