A

SYSTEM

OF

Universal Geography,

ON THE PRINCIPLES OF

COMPARISON AND CLASSIFICATION.

BY WILLIAM CHANNING WOODBRIDGE,
MEMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS.

SECOND EDITION,

ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND ENGRAVINGS;
AND ACCOMPANIED BY AN

ATLAS,

EXHIBITING, IN CONNEXION WITH THE OUTLINES OF COUNTRIES,
THEIR CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS;
THE PREVAILING RELIGIONS, FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, AND
DEGREES OF CIVILIZATION;
AND THE COMPARATIVE SIZE OF TOWNS,
RIVERS, AND MOUNTAINS.

"The very essence of science consists in generalizing, and reducing to a few classes
or general principles, the multitude of individual things which every branch of human
knowledge embraces."Jamieson’s Logic.

Hartford:

PUBLISHED BY OLIVER D. COOKE & CO.
J. & J. HARPER, PRINTERS.

1827
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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School geography books such as this one illustrate how Europeans and Euro-Americans in the 19th century felt it was important to classify and form hierarchies of all phenomena. This geography book taught geography through a system of "comparison and classification" of both landscapes and cultures. Each country and race of people described in the book is ranked according to its "Degrees of Civilization" much as the major rivers and mountains are classified in terms of their comparative size.

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