its natural resources.

Some easy problems may be given to the senior classes to be answered by
reference to physical conditions:

Why are London, New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Halifax, such
important centres? Why are certain places fitted for certain
manufactures? Will Winnipeg become a more important city than
Montreal? Will Vancouver outstrip San Francisco? What is a possible
future for the Western Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan? What
might have been the state of North America to-day, if the Rocky
Mountains had run along the East coast, instead of along the West?

On the other hand, history contributes a human interest to geography;
the places of greatest interest are often those associated with great
events in history--Athens, Mount Sinai, Waterloo, Queenston Heights.

HISTORY AND LITERATURE

Literature gives life and human interest to both history and geography.
By means of literature we are able to get a better notion of the ideals
and motives of a people than the mere recital of the facts of their
history can give. In this connection we naturally think of Homer's
_Iliad_ and its influence on the Greeks. It was their storehouse of
history, morals, religion, aesthetics, and rules for the practical
guidance of life, as well as their literary masterpiece.

It is often easy to interest pupils in a period of history by reading or
quoting to them some ballad, poem, or prose narrative that colours the
historical facts with the element of human feeling. Macaulay's
_Horatius_ gives a deeper impression of Roman patriotism than almost
anything in pure history can; the various aspects of the Crusades are
vividly shown by W. Stearns Davis in _God Wills It_, a story of the
first Crusade. In fact, if stirring events can be linked in the child's
mind with stirring verse, if the struggles and progress of nations can
be presented in a vigorous narrative that echoes the thoughts, feelings,
and interests of the time, we make an appeal to the interest of the
pupil that is almost irresistible. The objection is sometimes urged
against the reading of standard historical tales and novels, that these
are somewhat exaggerated in sentiment and inaccurate in facts. Even if
this be so, it may be said that they give in outline a fair picture of
the period described, that the interest in history aroused by such tales
begets a liking for history itself, and that such exaggerations and
inaccura