e at their accomplishments.

STRABO THE GEOGRAPHER

The earliest of these workers in point of time is Strabo. This most
famous of ancient geographers was born in Amasia, Pontus, about 63 B.C.,
and lived to the year 24 A.D., living, therefore, in the age of Caesar
and Augustus, during which the final transformation in the political
position of the kingdom of Egypt was effected. The name of Strabo in a
modified form has become popularized through a curious circumstance.
The geographer, it appears, was afflicted with a peculiar squint of the
eyes, hence the name strabismus, which the modern oculist applies to
that particular infirmity.

Fortunately, the great geographer has not been forced to depend upon
hearsay evidence for recognition. His comprehensive work on geography
has been preserved in its entirety, being one of the few expansive
classical writings of which this is true. The other writings of Strabo,
however, including certain histories of which reports have come down to
us, are entirely lost. The geography is in many ways a remarkable book.
It is not, however, a work in which any important new principles are
involved. Rather is it typical of its age in that it is an elaborate
compilation and a critical review of the labors of Strabo's
predecessors. Doubtless it contains a vast deal of new information as
to the details of geography--precise areas and distance, questions
of geographical locations as to latitude and zones, and the like.
But however important these details may have been from a contemporary
stand-point, they, of course, can have nothing more than historical
interest to posterity. The value of the work from our present
stand-point is chiefly due to the criticisms which Strabo passes
upon his forerunners, and to the incidental historical and scientific
references with which his work abounds. Being written in this closing
period of ancient progress, and summarizing, as it does, in full detail
the geographical knowledge of the time, it serves as an important
guide-mark for the student of the progress of scientific thought. We
cannot do better than briefly to follow Strabo in his estimates and
criticisms of the work of his predecessors, taking note thus of the
point of view from which he himself looked out upon the world. We shall
thus gain a clear idea as to the state of scientific geography towards
the close of the classical epoch.

"If the scientific investigation of any subject be the proper avoc