_France_, _Flanders_, _Britanny_, _Burgundy_, and _Aquitaine_, are political names of parts of the country, whose limits have varied as much at different times as those of the different parts of Britain and Spain. This is the difference between strictly geographical names which do not alter and political names which do alter. No doubt _Gaul_ and _Britain_ were in the beginning political names, names given to the land from those who occupied it, just as much as the names _France_ and _England_. But the settlements from which those lands took the names of Gaul and Britain took place long before the beginning of trustworthy history, while the settlements from which parts of those lands took the names of France and England happened in times long after trustworthy history began, and for which we are therefore ready with dates and names. Thus Gaul and Britain are the oldest received names of those lands; they are the names which those lands bore when we first hear of them. It is therefore convenient to keep them in use as strictly geographical names, as always meaning that part of the earth’s surface which they meant when we first hear of them. In this book therefore, _Gaul_, _Britain_, _Spain_, and other names of the same kind, will always be used to mean a certain space on the map, whoever may be its inhabitants, or whatever may be its government, at any particular time. But names like _France_, _England_, _Castile_, will be used to mean the territory to which they were politically applied at the time of which we may be speaking, a territory which has been greater and less at different times. Thus, the cities of Carlisle and Edinburgh have always been in _Britain_ since they were built. They have sometimes been in _England_ and sometimes not. The cities of Marseilles, Geneva, Strassburg, and Arras have always been in _Gaul_ ever since they were built. They have sometimes been in _France_ and sometimes not, according to political changes. § 1. _Geographical Aspect of Europe._