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values of x will make the expressions a x b, a xbx + c, &c., equal to nothing: whereas, it is necessary to inquire what values of a make these expressions positive, negative, or nothing. All that is learnt appears to have no higher view than enabling the student to solve the pretty problems which we have mentioned, and not to simplify the higher parts of the science. This is too much the fault of the education of our schools in general. It is not recollected that they cannot expect to make learned men; but they may make good learners, and at the same time produce such a desire for knowledge as shall lead the individual to devote himself to study, where it is not matter of compulsion, as in the Universities, and still more amid the occupations of life. The great mistake lies in a notion that they are to teach the greatest possible number of bare facts before the pupil arrives at the age of sixteen; whether he will leave school with the desire of adding one more bit of knowledge to his stock, or with the power to do so if he has the will, does not seem to be considered of any importance. Again we call upon all who still adhere to the old system to reflect a little on their own interest. The number of new methods of teaching proposed every day shows the existence of a general feeling that some change is requisite. The Universities, which have made great advances within the last twenty years, may be proposed to the schools as an example for their imitation. And let them recollect, that, the demand existing, the question is not whether they will supply what is asked for or something else, but whether the public must come to them or go elsewhere.

161

ON THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY.
BY G. LONG.

(From the Quarterly Journal of Education, No. XIII.)

A COMMERCIAL country, with numerous and extensive foreign possessions,-a country whose soldiers and ships are found on almost every coast, and whose travellers visit every country, would seem peculiarly adapted to be the centre of geographical knowledge. That Great Britain has made, and is daily making, very large additions to our knowledge of the earth's surface, is a fact which will be generally admitted; and that hitherto all these accumulated facts have been turned to very little account in systematizing our knowledge, is another fact which is equally indisputable. The nation that has now for several centuries made discovery, colonization, and foreign conquest, whenever opportunity offered, part of its political system, had not, three years ago, even a geographical society, and at present there is not, we believe, a single public teacher of geography in the universities and colleges of Great Britain, with the exception of the professor lately appointed in the London University. The London Geographical Society now forms a point of union for those who are interested in the knowledge of the earth's surface, and by its Journal it invites and offers facilities to the publication of many valuable contributions, which otherwise would never appear. The formation of a library and a collection of maps, which also are part of the Society's plan, together with the

*Geography has been publicly taught at the London Mechanics' Institute for some time.

communications existing between this and foreign societies, will tend to concentrate a great variety of information which hitherto has been scattered and comparatively useless. The limited funds of the Society, and the great expense and risk of expeditions, place all direct discovery almost beyond the sphere of the Society's operations. And indeed, as a general rule, such discovery is best left to individual enterprise, or it belongs to the business of government. Yet a geographical society ought to contribute indirectly towards discovery by pointing out to travellers what has been already done, by furnishing them. with a set of proper and well-arranged questions and directions, and by giving such countenance as each individual or undertaking may merit. The holding out a promise of a prize for a certain thing to be done, or for the writing of a certain essay, for which individuals must be competitors, as the phrase goes, appears to us not likely to do any good; and we are glad to see that hitherto the Society has not had the opportunity of awarding any premiums of this kind. They have been given, as we hope they ever will be, to individuals who had done some service, without troubling themselves about the Society's offers. The Society, when it has a premium to dispose of, should look around and confer it on some individual whose services are such as will render the conferring and the accepting of the premium equally creditable to both parties. The Geographical Society's views cannot, we think, go beyond what we have mentioned; nor do we see any way in which such a Society is likely to improve geography as a science. Some persons, however, differ from us in opinion on this last point, and think that the Geographical Society may in many ways tend to raise geography to the rank of a science. This opinion appears to us to be founded on a misconception of the na

ture of a society; and in conformity with this, as we conceive, erroneous notion, societies are often blamed for not doing that for which they are by their constitution altogether unsuited.

It is only by making geography an efficient part of early instruction that we can expect to see a set of men formed, who, being thoroughly acquainted with the proper objects and limits of their inquiries, will set about classifying the innumerable facts with which geography has to deal, and deducing from them legitimate inferences. Of course, it will be said that geography is already a part of instruction in every school: this is true, and yet it is still far from having assumed any shape that entitles it to the name of a science. The term science has been generally applied, and sometimes exclusively, to those branches of investigation which have quantity for their subject, and which proceed on strict demonstration. Thus it is applied to the pure mathematics, and, by an extension of the definition just given, to those branches of knowledge whose principles are founded on observation and experiment, and whose results are expressed by number. It may also be applied, and should be applied to all subjects, in which such general principles have been deduced as render it practicable to arrange all the matter of a subject under certain heads or divisions, such heads or divisions being formed and distributed in accordance with, and subordinate to, certain general principles. Geography is a subject which, from its nature, has been hitherto particularly vague and indefinite. It is not a science of demonstration; nor is it a thing of which the matter is divided and distributed in subordination to general principles; nor, like zoology and botany, is it Jimited with precision by the nature of the subject of inquiry it treats of all things, or is said to treat of all

things, and this is the reason why it treats with precision of nothing at all.

Geography, as the school-books tell us, is the description of the earth, and then they refer us to its Greek etymology as confirming the definition. On looking into these books, we find that they are in general any thing but a description of the earth; and yet a description of the earth's surface is the proper and legitimate subject of geography. We altogether object to the views of those who advise us to keep the definition of geography somewhat vague, in order to comprehend within it as much useful matter as we can. In a good book of travels we are glad to find every kind of information, and from such a work the botanist, the zoologist, and others, may glean those facts which bear more particularly on their several pursuits. But when we are endeavouring to improve a science, or to convert a vague subject into one, the first thing that we have to do is to fix its limits.

Geography will never deserve the name of a science till the matter of it is divided and arranged in conformity with general principles; nor of knowledge, till its facts are reduced as much as possible to numerical representation; and it is no objection to this, that many of its numerical representations must be merely approximative. It is better to know that the average value of a fact lies between 95 and 100 than to have no definite idea of it at all.

Geography takes for granted the spherical figure of the earth, but the astronomical determination of positions upon its surface is one of its special objects. By the determination of a great number of coast positions, we arrive at a notion of the exterior configuration of the land, as bounded by water. The investigation of the tides, currents, &c., of seas and oceans, is a subject extensive enough of itself, and properly belongs to the

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