Got a piece of paper and pencil handy? All right—take this down: "The Days of Creation," by Willy Ley, published by Modern Age Books, New York—320 pp., illustrated. $2.75.
Don't borrow this book. Buy it. Buy two copies if you can afford it, one for yourself and one to loan to your friends.
Now don't misunderstand me. Neither I, nor Street & Smith, have any financial interest in the transaction. This is pure love, unsolicited admiration. I wish I had written it. I wish I could write it.
All right, all right—I'll get around to telling what the book is about. Don't rush me. It is a short biography of the Universe, starting with "In the beginning" and closing with the Age of Man—and a brief, thrilling prophecy of the future. This book does not discuss the politics and wars of the human race; it discusses everything else. This book is the nearest thing to a complete picture of the world we live in I recall having seen; it may be the best such picture possible for one book, one author, this date.
Mr. Ley has arranged his account to parallel that given in the first chapter of Genesis, not only because that arrangement is simple, dramatic and familiar, but also because the account in Genesis is, bearing in mind differences in language and its extreme brevity, remarkably similar to modern scientific conception. The book has seven chapters, the Seven Days of Creation; the appropriate verses from Genesis stand as chapter headings. But do not let me lead you into thinking that the work is an attempt to reconcile "Science" and "Religion." I had better let the author speak for himself on that point. After discussing, in the preface, the amazing and delightful similarity between almost all ancient accounts of creation, he says:
"Not reasons of high philosophy nor attempts to reconcile ideas that need no reconciling, but the pure joy of comparing two stories, each of them fascinating in itself and doubly so when regarded together."
First Day: "Let There Be Light." A sparkling account of all the stories of the origin of the physical universe, mythological, classical and modern, with detailed rendering of best to date. Cosmogony, astronomy, astrophysics and modern nuclear physics.
Second Day: "The Division of the Waters." From cosmogony we proceed to geogony, to geology, to biology and the first appearance of life on this planet.
Third Day: "The Conquest of the Land." Paleontology and genetics combine to explain the story of how Life made the incredible jump from the sea to the barren, sterile, forbidding rocks of the shore.
Fourth Day: "The Great New Invention." It is alleged that a devout Moslem rug weaver will always introduce an imperfection into his pattern, as Allah alone is perfect. It is almost a pleasure to find, or seem to find, a fault in Willy Ley. It restores one's own self-confidence. There are two "Great Inventions" in this chapter; I am not sure to which the title refers. One is—quite seriously! —seasons. The other is warm-bloodedness. One led to the other. After a considerable period, some millions of years, of uniform climate, things began to happen to the weather—hot days and cold nights, winter snow and summer sun, tropical ages and ice ages. Some of the animals acquired a built-in thermostat and ceased being reptiles.
Geology, meteorology, vulcanology, paleontology, genetics, chemistry and a seasoning of other sciences, suffices to get us through this chapter. But do not be alarmed—this' is a lecture course with no prerequisites; Ley supplies all the necessary information, wittily and charmingly.
Fifth Day: "The Triumph of the Reptiles." See Disney's "Fantasia." Better yet, see Ley's "Days of Creation." I am very fond of stegosauri and still more so of triceratops, but these self-contained panzer divisions have received more than their share of publicity—I won't add to it. But Mr. Ley gives them their due, with no bonus.
Sixth Day: "The Glory of the Mammals." We can't all live near the Bronx Zoo, and, anyhow, some of them have been in the La Brea tar pits—which means the "tar pit" tar pits—a long time. Smylodon, and the lovely short-faced bear, and many others.
Seventh Day: "The Consolidation of Brain Power." Man got here late, and poorly equipped—naked, soft, unarmed and unarmored. He had to be smart—or die. But other animals had brains, too. Just what was it he had that brought him to the top? And will he stay there? Buy the book.
Mr. Ley has convinced me that Man will stay on top. I now believe that Doc Smith's most supergalactic dreams are no more than hardheaded prediction. The book concludes with a prophetic peroration which should cheer up the faint-hearted these depressing days.
Thank you, Willy Ley!
R. A. Heinlein.