322 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



indeed, such discussion is not the object of the work, but to embrace in conven- 

 ient compass such personal, characteristic, and artistic facts regarding artists 

 of the century as will make the work indispensable for reference, and a great 

 convenience for artists and Art-lovers and students. Critical estimates from com- 

 petent authorities, and full indexes, add largely to the value and practical utility 

 of the work." Such examination of the work as we have been enabled to give it 

 assures us that the task undertaken by Mrs. Clement and Mr. Hutton has been 

 performed with great care, diUgence, and success. The publishers are Houghton, 

 Osgood & Co., of Boston. 



Kansas Historical Collections. Vols, i and 2, 1875-80; by F. G. Adams, 

 Secretary. Published by the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kan. 



This volume is made up of the first and second biennial reports, together 

 with a statement of the collections of the Society, from its organization in 1875, 

 to January, 1881. An inspection of the copious indices of this volume shows 

 what a vast amount of material of the early history of Kansas, Judge Adams has 

 gathered up in a reliable form and preserved for the future historian of this State. 

 Judge Adams seems to possess the necessary requisites for the secretaryship of 

 such a society, and in the present volume he has given full proof of his mission. 

 No State possesses a more thrilling, early history than Kansas, and no State has 

 done more to render that history accessible to the world through its Historical 

 Society. 



The School of Life. By W. R. Alger, 16 mo., pp. 205. Roberts Brothers, 

 Boston, 1881. For sale by Kansas Book and News Company. 



This volume is foreshadowed in the following passage from the introduction : 

 ^'The earth has frequently been called a vale of tears, trodden by mourners; a 

 desert threaded with caravans of pilgrims ; a bower of pleasure, inhabited by 

 careless flutterers ; a gloomy prison, occupied by convicts on probation ; a tent, 

 in which immortal travelers encamp for a night ; a ship sailing around the zodiac, 

 the generations, its successive crews ; a temple dedicated to worship, the human 

 race its natural priesthood ; and so on, with scarcely an end. But, on the whole, 

 no other comparison of it is so satisfactory as that which likens it to a school, and 

 describes the business of its occupants as the pursuit of an education fitting them 

 to graduate into the invisible university of God." Likening the world to a 

 school the author goes on totreat of the rooms of the school, the founder, the 

 providential, general and special teachers, and the various lessons learned. The 

 book contains the same characteristics as former volumes, by the same author, 

 such as "The Genius of Solitude," and "The Friendships of Women." Many 

 rich passages are in store for the reader and many sweet thoughts find an echo in 

 the heart, and as one rises from the perusal of the. book he resolves to have a 



