In the most recent of Jeans' books about the great cosmic beyond, or to be more precise, the great around, one fins a model for popular scientific writing. Beginning with the origin of our earth as a ball of flaming matter, he traces its history to the present, pierces the atmosphere, travels to our moon, to the planets, to the sun, beyond our stars to stars infinitely greater, and finally to the nebulae, those gigantic whirling masses of worlds unborn, and thus in a sense returns to the beginning.

With an excellent literary style, concise and readable, Sir James explains not only the constitution of our universe, but the history of astronomical though from the earliest times. The reader with but a mild interest in the subject matter will find in it a fascinating tale, easy to pick up, next to impossible to lay down. It is another proof of the ancient dictum that the truly great man is he who can express the most complicated of thoughts without resorting to involved phraseology as a sort of camouflage.

The book is one primarily for the dilettante, although its perusal will harm none. As a royal road to knowledge for those who like to know something about everything, it is superb and it will be equally liked by such as can appreciate a happy marriage of science and literature. The two worlds of scientists and of laymen should render up hearty thanks for the existence and continued productivity of Sir James Jeans.