FLATLAND. A ROMANCE OF MANY DIMENSIONS, BY A. SQUARE. ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON, 1885.

This remarkable book is published anonymously, and is supposed to relate the experience of an individual who lives entirely in a land of two dimensions, i. e. to every individual there is only length and breadth, no height. The form of the author is supposed to be that of a square. In the course of his experiences, he meets with a land of one dimension,- viz.- line land,- and later on he is introduced to a land of three dimensions, spaceland; though at first he could not be convinced, when told by a sphere, that space possessed more dimensions than two. At last, being forcibly taken out of the land of two dimensions by the sphere, he realized that such a thing as spaceland could exist. He was unable, however, to convince his friends and relatives in Flatland of his experiences, after his return to that place.

At first, one is struck by the utter absurdity, and nonsense of the book,- just as the swuare was with the story of the sphere,-but if one will have the perseverance to read it through to the end, he will at last see its purpose, at first dim. It is evidently an allegory written with the purpose of reminding us that we should not be incredulous of opinions other than our own, but should try to realize that there is some other view of looking at a matter besides the one which we are at present using. In explaining Flatland, there is a bit too much attention to detail. The style, however, is clear and forcible. The book as a whole is entertaining, and at times funny, through its very unreasonableness.