ng them into being.

PART II

NATURAL BEAUTY AND GEOGRAPHY

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, DELIVERED
AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING, MAY 31, 1920

NATURAL BEAUTY AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE

I have something to say which to old-fashioned geographers may
appear very revolutionary, and which you may hesitate to accept
straight away. But it has come to me as the result of much and
varied geographical work in the field; of listening to many lectures
before this Society; and of composing this Address and five lectures
for you, firstly, as far back as 1888, on my journey across Central
Asia from Peking to India; secondly, on my journey to Hunza and
the Pamirs; thirdly, on Chitral; fourthly, on my mission to Tibet; and
fifthly, on the Himalaya. And I expect when you come to think over
what I have now to say you will find that, after all, my conclusions
are not anything desperately revolutionary but something quite
obvious and natural.

What I want to lay before you for your very earnest consideration is
this--that we should take a profounder and broader view of
Geography, of its fundamental conception, and of its scope and aim,
than we have hitherto taken; and should regard the Earth as
_Mother_-Earth, and the _Beauty_ of her features as within the
purview of Geography.

I will state my case as clearly and briefly as I can. Geography is a
science. Science is learning, knowing, understanding. The object of
geographical learning, knowing, understanding is the Earth. We
must first, then, have a true conception of what the Earth really is.
And next we must be certain in our minds as to what is most worth
knowing about it.

To begin with our conception of the Earth. At the dawn of
Geography it was believed to be a flat disc. Later it was discovered
to be a sphere. Then it was found to be not a hard solid sphere like a
billiard-ball, but to be hard only on the surface, and within to be
quick with fervent heat. Now it is coming to be regarded as spirit as
well as body--as in its essential nature spiritual rather than material.

When we get as far back as science is able to take us we find that the
ultimate particles of which the Earth is made up are not minute
specks of some substance or material, but are simply centres of
radiant energy. Even with a microscope of infinite power we should
never be able to see one, like we see a grain of pollen or a grain of
sand. And if we had fingers of infinit