text:  After stating that the great object the [Greek: teleiotaton telos] of history is that which most nearly touches the inner life of civilized man he pauses for a while at the threshold before he enters into the sanctuary and undoubtedly some external knowledge is requisite before we penetrate into its recesses: we want some dwelling-place as it were for the mind some local habitation in which our ideas may be arranged some topics that may be firmly grasped by the memory and on which the understanding may confidently rest; and thus it is that geography even with a view to other purposes must engross in the first instance a considerable share of our attention