a board of a jet-black unreflecting surface be employed, and our skeleton-map drawn upon it, with chalks of a colour appropriate to the object delineated,―green for the hills, light blue for the rivers, pink or any distinct colour for the towns,—and a red cross for the scenes of battles and sieges, and it will be found greatly to delight the imagination and assist the memory. With a board thus prepared, presenting nothing to the eye that does not represent realities in nature,-and even among them a selection only of those most worthy to be known,let us invite the student to accompany us in an imaginary voyage down the blue river which he sees winding its way between the ranges of green hills on either side and, as it advances from fountain head to embouchure, swelling in breadth and depth by the tribute of numerous streams from the adjoining heights. In this progress, we fall in with the towns whose site has been determined by the convenience of the river and the alluvial soil of its vicinity, and inform ourselves of their names and what is remarkable about them; or, coming upon the points of junction of tributary streams, we ascend them in search of memorable localities to which they may guide us. If we go through the same process in regard to all the great rivers and their feeders, we shall find ourselves possessed in an easy and agreeable way of a better general idea and more interesting knowledge of the country whose geography we a

studying, than if we had painfully committed to memory whole columns of cities and towns and counties, and other conventionalities. The information conveyed in the manner now described, being communicated to the ear of the pupil at the same moment that his eye is fixed on the subject of it, will have a double chance of being deeply impressed and long remembered.1

3. It is not till we have completed this outline of what has a substantive existence, that the attention of the pupil ought to be called to the partition of the territory into provinces, circles, principalities, and shires, which are purely arbitrary, and have no natural character, no physical reality or assured permanence. With the contents and limits of these civil divisions, which time and conquest are constantly altering, it is no doubt important to be well acquainted, on account of their connection both with the history of past times and the concerns of the present; but even these conventional divisions are most readily acquired aud most firmly retained, when the physical geography of the country has been previously mastered.

4. In teaching geography as a branch of general knowledge, it is a mistake to aim at great minuteness of detail. The subject ought not to be exhausted. It can only be made attractive and profitable to young minds, by limiting the enumeration 1 See Appendix. Note F.

to those particulars, concerning which information of an interesting kind can be imparted. The compiler of a school-book should neither be ambitious of shewing the extent of his own knowledge, nor afraid of incurring the imputation of ignorance. His desire should be, to select judiciously what is fit to be taught, taking Pliny's rule for his guide,-non omnia dicam, sed maxime insignia. If the pupil shall never go beyond this elementary stage, he will at least not readily forget what he has so acquired; and, should he be tempted to proceed farther, he will start with eminent advantage from the simple and well-defined outline of his previous acquisitions.

5. As, on the one hand, the memory should not be overloaded with a multitude of mere names, so on the other, as many interesting associations as possible should be connected with the details which are given. In the case of towns, for example, the striking peculiarities, both in their natural, civil, political, and commercial history,—all that can serve to paint them to the imagination, and distinguish them from one another by something more than the name, should find a place, either in the text-book itself, or in the prelections and demonstrations of the teacher.

6. With the same view of multiplying the associations which give interest and permanence to the information conveyed, it will be useful, even in a

treatise of geography strictly ancient, to introduce illustrations from what properly belongs to modern times. For example, a great number of modern names of places are corrupted forms of the ancient appellations; and they are sometimes so altered that the affiliation is not at once apparent. Instances of this process are not wanting in our own island, in the -cester, -chester, and -caster (castra), in -vic, -wick, -wich (vicus), which form the terminations of so many names of towns, and in Street, Straiton, &c. (strata viarum); but the most remarkable are in the modern nomenclature of localities in France. The reader will find in Appendix, Note G, a selection of ancient Gallic names and their modern descendants which is worth studying, not merely as forming a link between ancient and modern times, but as affording, in a philological point of view, curious examples of the manner in which the French deal with foreign and imported words, docking and paring them down to suit the genius of their language.1

Sometimes also it is possible to trace back the modern names, through various changes, to some peculiarity in the natural or civil history of the place. Thus, the towns of Coblentz in Rhenish Prussia, of Cofrentes in Spain, of Conflans in France and Conflans in Savoy, have all got their names from the circumstance of being built at the meeting of two rivers and called by the Romans 1 See Appendix, Note G.

ad Confluentes. Tuy in Spanish Gallicia is traceable to the Aetolian Tyde; and is thus coupled in the memory with the name of Tydeus, or rather of his son Diomede (Tydīdes); and Lisbon (Olysippo) is associated with the wanderings of Ulysses. Ampurias is the name of a small town in the N.E. of Spain, and the adjoining district is called Ampurdano; names springing, the one from the ancient Emporiae, of old a place of resort to merchants (Europo); the other from the Sinus Emporitanus.

7. Finally, it will give additional interest and impressiveness to geographical instruction, as well as serve to improve the taste and store the mind with rich imagery and pleasing associations, if a selection of appropriate passages from the poets of antiquity be brought under the eye of the learner, and his mind made so familiar with them by explanation and comment, that they shall recur to it along with the names, and even the words be retained in the memory.1

IT is upon the principles stated above that the following summary of Classical Geography has been framed.

I am not aware of any good reason for departing from the practice, sanctioned by D'Anville and the older geographers, of printing the ancient names of localities in the Italic character. I have accordingly 1 See Appendix, Note H.