But to return to Professor Newcomb's recent utterances. In the above-mentioned article he says: "Not only does life, but intelligence, flourish on this globe under great variety of conditions as regards temperature and surroundings, and no sound reason can be shown why, under certain conditions which are frequent in the universe, intelligent beings should not acquire the highest development." Again he says: "Life, not wholly unlike that on the Earth, may therefore exist upon Mars, for anything we know to the contrary. More than this we cannot say." In his final summing up Professor Newcomb says: "It is therefore perfectly reasonable to suppose that beings not only animated but endowed with reason inhabit countless worlds in space." It would seem as if a mind capable of entertaining an idea of our uniqueness in the universe betrays the survival of a mental condition which, centuries ago, regarded the stars as bits of luminous material expressly designed to illuminate this little earth, around which they all pursued their daily paths. IV LOWELL'S BOOK ON MARS _This whole arrangement presents an indescribable simplicity and symmetry which cannot be the work of chance._ SCHIAPARELLI, in writing of the canals. In a discussion of the surface markings of Mars a broad sketch of what has already been accomplished in the study of that planet should be given for the general reader. I know of no better way of doing this than by giving a brief abstract of Percival Lowell's epoch-making work entitled "Mars." In this book he presents in a clear and striking manner the results of his own work covering continuous observations of the planet for many years. The preface is dated from Flagstaff, Arizona, 1895. Since that time he has issued three volumes of Memoirs, in quarto, of the Lowell Observatory, and a number of Bulletins in which he presents many additional facts confirming previous observations, besides new observations; and finally, in a late Bulletin, he has presented photographs of Mars made by his assistant, Mr. Lampland, in which a number of canals plainly show, thus setting forever at rest the question of the subjective character of the markings. The student must, however, follow the advice of an English reviewer and by all means read the book.