Excerpt from The Earth and Man: Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography, in Its Relation to the History of Mankind
This brief history of the present book will place the reader in a position to form a just Opinion of the work, and per haps will induce him to extend to it some indulgence.
It will, moreover, be readily understood, that oral instruction is naturally clothed in forms appropriate to itself, which are not those of a systematic and didactic exposition, such as is required by a book intended only for reading, or for the silent study of the closet. In the Opinion of the author, it should bring out in strong relief, even by venturing a dash of the pencil somewhat bold, the essential traits of the subject, in order to fix and deep en the impression, while the secondary features are thrown into the shade. ’truth, far from losing by this mode, will gain the advantage of being grasped in a manner at once more distinct, and more correct. For nothing is less indispensable to true sci ence, - may the reader of these pages find it so, - than the scho lastic and doctoral robe, which is too often unnecessarily worn.
This little work is not then a treatise on the subject indicated by its title the author would wish to consider this unforeseen publication, only as the forerunner of a more complete work, the materials of which, gradually collected during long years of study, and still daily accumulating, he hopes to arrange, and work out more at leisure, if not in the same form, at least in the same Spirit. However, he is confident that the man of science will find in this first sketch, the traces of serious and matured studies.
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