DISCIPLINARY VALUE OF GEOGRAPHY 229 



geologist rather than a geographer ; but he can show his allegiance to his 

 chosen science by making it clear to his hearers as well as to himself 

 that, however much he may delve in the past, his object in doing so is 

 solely in order better to understand the present. 



In contrast with the inductive and other methods of presentation, 

 the chief characteristic of the analytical method consists therefore in the 

 candid completeness with which it reveals and discusses the various 

 steps by which the investigator passes from the incomplete conception 

 of his problem, based directly on observable facts, to the complete and 

 comprehensive scheme which he has been led to believe is the true 

 counterpart of the whole enchainment of facts, past and present, 

 involved in his problem. Inductive presentation may lead, as has been 

 shown above, to an understanding of single groups of simple facts, but 

 it can not alone go so far as to reach the fuller meaning of combined 

 groups of complicated facts, many of which are of past occurrence. But 

 for that matter analytical presentation also may stop, on presenting 

 several independent, uncorrelated explanations of separately grouped 

 facts, and thus fail of being as broad and comprehensive as it should be. 

 On the other hand, the desirable goal of analytical investigation and 

 presentation is a well-correlated explanation of all the facts that have 

 come under investigation ; that is, a convincingly clear view of so much 

 of their total history as is already past and as bears helpfully on under- 

 standing and describing their present condition. It is practically im- 

 possible to go so far as this, without adding invention, deduction, com- 

 parison, revision and final judgment to the earlier processes of observa- 

 tion and induction. 



But there is another advantage possessed by analytical presentation, 

 besides its comprehensiveness. It is well known that a speaker can best 

 commend his work and himself to his hearers by a frank exposition of 

 the reasons that have led him to certain conclusions rather than to 

 others; and there is surely no way in which a clearer and more open 

 exposition of the reasons for belief can be set forth than by presenting, 

 at least in outline, the logical analytical method already described under 

 the account of investigatiori . 



Analytical presentation is moreover particularly to be recommended 

 in preparation for the explanatory as contrasted with the empirical 

 description of land forms; for inasmuch as all explanatory treatment is 

 open to error, it is important not only to take precautions against error 

 during investigation in every possible way, but also to make it plain to 

 one's hearers that these precautions have actually been taken. The 

 speaker should therefore frankly recognize the possibility of error, and 

 then show, by critically analyzing the grounds of belief, that every pre- 

 caution has been taken to insure its correctness. 



During the progress of an analytical presentation, the speaker must 

 take care to show no personal preference for one hypothesis over 



