THE MODERN PRECEPTOR: CHAPTER VI. ON GEOGRAPHY, BY GEOGRAPHY is meant that part of science which teaches the form of this earth which we inhabit, as also its several divisions into quarters, empires, kingdoms, and other states, with their respective boundaries and subdivisions, and the relative positions of countries, cities, towns, mountains, seas, lakes, rivers, and other remarkable objects on the earth's surface: The term geography is formed from two Greek words, signifying, in general, a description of the earth, although the science has been divided into two branches, geography, properly so called, or a description of the land, and hydrography, or a description of the water or sea. On the utility or importance of the study of geography it would be idle to expatiate every person's experiènce must show that some arquaintance with it is indispensible in the ordinary intercourse and business of society; and hence we find, that to geography the attention of mankind was attracted from the earliest periods of history; at least, VOL. 11, B 30 |