Noel Annan's review originally appeared in the TLS of September 22nd 1950

Writing the Life of Bishop Colenso, Sir George Cox observed that his persecutor, Samuel Wilberforce, had refuted the arithmetically minded colonial bishop, who had dared to question the literal veracity of the Pentateuch, by appealing to the well-known fact that after the fall of Man, lions grew claws, rose-bushes thorns, beasts against their own will became beasts of prey and the globe was rocked by earthquakes. Had not Milton shown that Eve’s sin had caused the declination of the earth’s axis? Dr Velikovsky’s book takes us back to those good old days, and returns to the geology of the last of the catastrophists, Dean Buckland, who reconciled the story of the Flood with his admirable researches into the earth’s antiquity by finding relics of that catastrophe among his collection of fossils.

Briefly, Dr Velikovsky has attempted to cast doubt on our accepted ideas of cosmology. There are a number of facts, he says, which will not fit into our present conception of the earth’s history; for instance, how is it that the Siberian mammoths, perfectly preserved in frozen soil, are found to have grass in their stomachs which no longer grows on the tundra? This and other facts cannot be explained by the gradual encroachment of ice-sheets. So far from terrestrial changes evolving during millions of years, there have in fact occurred disasters which have changed the climate and life on the earth within a matter of days.

And the proof for this speculation? Why, to be sure, in the sacred and epic writings of the past. No one can deny that Dr Velikovsky has read his primitive literature; and, like a body-snatcher, he extracts what he requires from the texts to prove his case. Rabbinical commentaries, Talmudic lore, the Troano and Popol-Vuh of the Mayas, the Hindu Varahasanhita and, of course, the Icelandic Eddas are all at his fingertips. Dr Velikovsky is a man of much learning and he has mastered the commentaries upon the texts and all books on cosmology as well. Is it not written in Homer that Athene and Ares fight in the Heavens, and is not this a poetical description of the actual collision between Venus and Mars? But, surely, one replies desperately, Aphrodite comes to Ares’s aid? Yes, but Aphrodite is not to be confounded with Venus: Athene was the goddess of that planet (references follow). And so it goes on. It is idle to apply the standards of critical scholarship to this work; the author’s method, his arrangement and dating of sources, and his physics are peculiarly his own. Like a Russian starets, he comes to prophesy and lifts the scales from our eyes; like a metaphysical poet, all curious knowledge is his province and it all points one way; like Sir Thomas Browne, he delights to pursue his reason to our O altitudo! As a card-index of primitive stories of disaster, Dr Velikovsky’s work is to be praised. As a contribution to astronomy, physics, geology, history or anthropology it will delight all who possess a sense of humour and of wonder at the delectable ingenuity of the human intellect.

The sales of the book in America have been staggering and its reputation has been further enhanced by dark stories of scientists allegedly applying pressure by boycotting the text-book department of the author’s first publishing house in a frenzied effort to prevent the destruction of their own reputation and of orthodox physics. It will be interesting to see how the book fares in this country. No doubt the lunatic fringe and the fundamentalists will respond. But will Mr Fred Hoyle’s audience publicly burn it, chanting a version of stanza 1vi of In Memoriam, revised to fit the new vision of the fate of the human race:

"Who loved, who suffered countless ills,
Who battled for the True, the Just,
Be burnt by radioactive dust
Or rot beside uranium hills?"

Unfortunately, we are more likely to display an Anglo-Saxon phlegm. Not for us the same thrill that sent shivers down the spine of Bishop Wilberforce’s generation; so far from believing cosmology to be a revelation of truth, we are apt to regard it as a diversion from the detective story and the adventures of Superman.

Explore The TLS

• TLS Selections

• TLS Archives

• TLS Arguments

• TLS Writers

• TLS Letters

• Poem of the Week

• Then & Now