Books in Brief: The Soul of the Night

The Soul of the Night:An Astronomical Pilgrimage, by Chet Raymo (Prentice-Hall, 209 pp., $15.95)

With the revisitation of Halley’s comet in progress, Chet Raymo’s The Soul of the Night is perfect reading, not only for toning up the mind but also for tuning in on the aesthetic wonder of it all. Though concentrating on the wonders of the night, Professor Raymo’s chapters—really separate essays—deal with all levels of life in the hierarchy of being. Any summer night, when the world outside seems to us placid and asleep, it is actually teeming with the various existences of birds and all kinds of other creatures, from crickets to monsters in the dark pool. Professor Raymo, a C. P. Snow-type scientist, gives ample evidence of being generously well-read in the humanities. His text is not presumptuous, however, but naturally at home with its references to Thoreau, Blake, Max Picard, and Theodore Roethke. Still, it is curious that in his references to that mythical monster, the Great Kraken, Raymo makes no allusion whatever to Tennyson’s notable poem on the subject. It is also too bad that the jacket blurb compares Raymo’s science writing to that of Carl Sagan and Lewis Thomas, whereas it would have been more accurate to place him with Donald Culross Peattie and the late Loren Eiseley. He has a finer philosophical sensibility than the nominalist Sagan and at the same time is as informative as Thomas. In fact, this is a stunning book. The woodcuts are superb complements to the text and have to be the finest since Rockwell Kent and Lynd Ward. thomas p. mcdonnell

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Thomas P. McDonnell

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The Soul of the Night:An Astronomical Pilgrimage, by Chet Raymo (Prentice-Hall, 209 pp., $15.95)

With the revisitation of Halley’s comet in progress, Chet Raymo’s The Soul of the Night is perfect reading, not only for toning up the mind but also for tuning in on the aesthetic wonder of it all. Though concentrating on the wonders of the night, Professor Raymo’s chapters—really separate essays—deal with all levels of life in the hierarchy of being. Any summer night, when the world outside seems to us placid and asleep, it is actually teeming with the various existences of birds and all kinds of other creatures, from crickets to monsters in the dark pool. Professor Raymo, a C. P. Snow-type scientist, gives ample evidence of being generously well-read in the humanities. His text is not presumptuous, however, but naturally at home with its references to Thoreau, Blake, Max Picard, and Theodore Roethke. Still, it is curious that in his references to that mythical monster, the Great Kraken, Raymo makes no allusion whatever to Tennyson’s notable poem on the subject. It is also too bad that the jacket blurb compares Raymo’s science writing to that of Carl Sagan and Lewis Thomas, whereas it would have been more accurate to place him with Donald Culross Peattie and the late Loren Eiseley. He has a finer philosophical sensibility than the nominalist Sagan and at the same time is as informative as Thomas. In fact, this is a stunning book. The woodcuts are superb complements to the text and have to be the finest since Rockwell Kent and Lynd Ward. thomas p. mcdonnell