special beauty and
wherein their beauty lies, and lastly taught where in an ordinary
district Beauty may be found, for even in the flattest, dreariest
region _some_ beauty at some time of day or at some season may be
discovered. We shall, in short, be taught to cultivate the sense for
Natural Beauty, and how to put in fitting words a description of the
beauty we see. Our geography textbooks, besides all the
mathematical, physical, political, and commercial geography they
contain, will tell us something of the Natural Beauty of the countries
they set themselves to describe. And geographers when they set
themselves to describe a new region will not think it necessary to
confine themselves within the old limits, but will do what the
ordinary man instinctively does--describe its beauties.

Our methods of describing countries will thus radically change. A
few years ago Colonel Tanner of the Survey of India read to the
Royal Geographical Society a paper entitled "Our Present
Knowledge of the Himalaya." In that paper he gave an account of
the height of the peaks, the trend of the mountain ranges, the course
of the rivers, and a deal of other very valuable geographical
information. But in only one single line did he make any remark
about the natural beauty of that wonderful region. Yet this omission
was not due to any lack of appreciation by Colonel Tanner of
Himalayan beauty, for he himself had painted the finest pictures of
the Himalaya which have yet been produced. He made no mention
of it because he thought that to describe the natural beauty of the
Himalaya was to stray beyond the bounds of Geography.

Such a grievous misconception of the true scope of Geography will,
I trust, be removed in future. And when it no longer exists
Geography will require for its pursuit the exercise of the finest
faculties of the soul as well as the strictest qualities of the intellect.
It will call forth capacity for the closest and most accurate
observation and the highest powers of description. To us
adventure-loving and Nature-loving Englishmen it should of all
subjects be the most popular.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Heart of Nature, by Francis Younghusband

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