[Book Reviews]

Abstract

ONE point which the recent discussions with regard to geographical education in this country has brought out beyond dispute is that our teachers have wretched textbooks in geography, and Germany has been held up to us as the model to follow in this as in many other respects in regard to geographical teaching. The Germans (as Mr. Chisholm points out in his interesting preface) have had long experience in working out an advanced system of education; they know that a limited period must be turned to account for the thorough teaching of a great variety of subjects, and accordingly they have learned to distinguish between what is indispensable as a groundwork and what must be omitted. In this country the study of geography is mainly a work of memory—the names of towns, rivers, mountains, with their populations, lengths, and heights. This and similar details are precisely those on which the Germans lay least stress, and as Mr. Chisholm has “earnestly endeavoured to guide himself by German examples,” he anticipates that his book will appear more remarkable for what it omits than what it contains. Stated in his own words his object has been, in the first place, to draw a mental picture of the different countries and regions of the world, giving due relief to what is most distinctive in each region, and, secondly, to give special prominence to the relation of cause and effect, so as to enable pupils to realise that in geography there is something to understand as well as to commit to memory, in other words, to make geography a mental discipline as well as a body of instruction. Of course there is important work for the memory in geography as in every other branch of education, and this the author recognises, and provides for in his tables and printing. He insists, too, on the vital necessity of maps, without which there can be no adequate knowledge of geography. A text-book is supplementary to an atlas, and does not supersede it. These are high ideals which Mr. Chisholm sets before him; let us see how he fulfils them.

Longmans' School Geography.

By George G. Chisholm (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1886.)