reasonable people,” will be our guide.nPrecisely what “natural” sense does henhave in mind? That which guides the verynnatural aborigines of Borneo or theirncounterparts in California communes?nOne suspects that instead he has in mindnthe very Mwnatural sense inculcated bynJudeo-Christian culture, but, if so, he isnphilosophically cheating. He is cheating,ntoo, when he informs the reader thatnrecognizing the “autonomous” world ofnall mental artifects “does away with subjectivism”nand yet on the facing page hendiscredits the meaning of one of thosenvery artifacts (a fatalistic stanza fromnFitzgerald) because it does not accordnwith “my own view.”nHow man ever acquired a moral sensenat ail is a question Dr. Medawar sophisticallynevades. Certainly, he does not recognizenin man a unique ontological ornspiritual status. Dr. Medawar sees onlynchemical determinism at work in man’snorigin and denies him any “privilegednaxis” in nature. With an equivocal analogynDr. Medawar suggests that ethics differsnfrom physics merely in the way that topologyndiffers from Euclidean geometry,nand to those who are dubious about thenuse of animal studies as a guide for humannbehavior he rejoins that we must remembernthat without such studies “therenwould be no penicillin, no insulin, nontransplantation.” Small wonder that hensees metaphysics as merely the “compostnthat can nourish the growth of scientificnideas.”nThe truth, which Dr. Medawar knows,nis that science simply cannot yield moralnor cognitive meaning, since “inferencesnhaving to do with the first and last thingsncannot be deduced from propositionsncontaining only empirical furniture.”nUnfortunately, he repeatedly forgets thisnand pronounces as scientific feet his ownnirreligious opinions. Thus, for instance,nhe declares that a statistical survey callingninto question the ef&cacy of prayernrepresents the only valid approach tonthe issue. Similarly, he finds that the existencenof certain diseases should maken”even the most devout question the existencenof a benevolent deity” instead ofnNight School in New JerseynAn adult education program in NewnJersey recently published a catalog of itsncourse offerings. Included are such thingsnas “The Gambler,” ^1iich should not benconfiised with anything by Dostoevski.nIts descrq)tion c^jens: “On visits to AtlanticnCity, do you find yourself playing only thenslot machines tiecause you don’t knownthe basic rules of the other games?” Onenof the more interesting offerings is thenexclamatory “Living Single!” Its descriptionnadvises harried housewives and sluggishnsalesmen that:nliving alone CAN BE more acceptablenand satisfying! But—^you can also explorensome current options for engagingnin a successftil relationship. There willnbe dialogue, discussions, and experientialntechniques for recycling your lifestyle.nEnroUraent is limited to the fiist 25nmales and 25 females! The dasswill meetnat the Holiday Inn.nreinforcing thefr consciousness of man’snFall. Especially proud that science hasn”liberated” man from the “superstition”nof a Second Coming, he rejoices at thensecular prospect of “a future in thisnworld.” (No evidence exists, of course,nto disprove this Christian doctrine, andnshould the Son of man suddenly appearnone day in clouds of glory as He promised.nDr. Medawar would doubtless advancena new and quite viable hypothesis: “Well,nI’ll be damned!”)nIjut what has the vista of millennianwithout a Final Judgment actually inspfred?nWhat besides vddespread eimui,ndrug abuse, random sex, and teenagensuicide? Even Dr. Medawar concedesn”the decay of values … in this modemnworld.” Moreover, a universe operatingnonly according to the principles thus farndiscovered by science is necessarilyntemporal and therefore does not allownanything—^not mankind as a race, notnthe very galaxies—to avoid eventual ex­nnnLIBERAL CULTURE HnA note to the course description says thatnthe graduates of tfie course will be invitednto a “Let’s Get Acquainted” session thatnwill also be held at the before-mentionednmotelnIt doesn’t take a graduate from “ThenGambler” to know that the odds are betternthan even that the a posteriori sesston willnbe reduiKlant for a number of the 30 lifestylenlecyders, many of “wixxn will have enrollednin the course that follows in the catalog:n”The Law of Divorce & Marri^e.” Dntinction. Time without eternity, as T. S.nEliot perceived, ultimately offers butntwo things: “Dung and death.” ThenSecond Coming, a darkly threateningnmyth to Dr. Medawar, was (and still isnfor many) a belief which endows life withndrama and meaning. And surely it is thencraving for meaning which above all elsenafflicts modem man. As Dr. Medawarncorrectiy observes, the popularity ofnTeilhard de Chardin’s hysterical mysticismnis “a symbol of hunger, a hunger fornanswers to questions of the kind that sciencendoes not profess to be able to answer.”nDespite all that scientists havendone to enhance modem technology,nmedicine, and agriculture, they have notnforestalled the fulfillment of the bleaknprophecy of an ancient shepherd namednAmos:nBehold, the days come, saith the LordnGod, that I will send a &mine in thenland, not a famine of bread, nor a thirstnfor water, but of hearing the words ofnthe Lord. DnNovember 1983n