508 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



letine's apartments in the Palazzo Altieri in Rome ; Mr. Stevenson's house, known 

 as the "Red House," and Miss Hozier's Bijou house in London. All of these 

 are minutely and graphically portrayed by Mrs. Haweis in her most artistic and 

 poetic style, so that after reading one feels that he has actually had an experience. 

 It is impossible to convey this experience to these pages and we must refer 

 the reader to the book itself, assuring him of a rare literary treat as well as a prob- 

 able expansion and enrichment of his ideas upon modern taste and style in 

 building, furnishing and decorating houses in cases where, as the author §ays, 

 " exquisite feeling, devotion and knowledge, with all the skill that money and 

 thought command," are brought into requisition. 



Braceridge Hall : Old Christmas. From Washington Irving's Sketch-Book. 

 Quarto, 48 and 36 pp. MacMillan & Co., London, 1882. 6d each. 



The above are excellent reprints of two of the genial Irving's best stories or 

 sketches, and have been brought out in good style by MacMillan & Co. who have 

 spared no pains to make them popular. In addition to firstrate typography, the 

 publishers have had each volume illustrated with more than one hundred wood 

 cuts, which add very materially to their appearance and value. 



It is altogether unnecessary to speak of the literary merits of these works. 

 Every American knows and appreciates Irving, who is also a favorite in England, 

 where he spent a considerable portion of his life. 



The Doctrine of the Unknowable ; with a Synthesis, By David Eccles, 

 ^Kansas City, Mo. 1882; octavo, pp. 22. Price loc. 



Mr. David Eccles, of this city, has recently published in pamphlet form his 

 lecture delivered last summer before the Kansas Liberal Union at Bismarck Grove. 

 It is a bold and somewhat abrupt departure from the beaten track in metaphysics, 

 relegating the doctrine of the Unknowable to a much less prominent position than 

 it has occupied since Spencer enunciated it and substituting for it the assumption 

 that matter and its states are an illusion, having no existence outside of mind ; 

 that there is no real of existence besides mind, and that he who knows himself and 

 his sensations knows all ; all else being a creation of the senses and having no 

 actuality whatever. From this starting point he constructs a synthesis whose scope 

 includes every mode of matter and motion, giving them corresponding sentiency 

 and culminating in perfect adaptation, which can only abide in "the Great Cen- 

 tral Soul." While to us this seems like stepping from the Unknowable to the In- 

 conceivable, (though we suppose all thought must stop at some final mystery and 

 why not as well with Mr, Eccles' incomprehensible mind as with Spencer's ficti- 

 tious Unknowable, ?) it is the result of a strict metaphysical reasoning and doubt- 

 less will satisfy many who have not hitherto been willing to accept the, apparent 

 evasions of Spencer in resorting to the Unknowable, It will certainly give Mr. 

 Eccles an advanced position among philosophical thinkers. 



