Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

IT HAS BEEN SAID by and collected by WILLIAM ETKIN* The muse of psychology stands frozen in terror, threatened on one side by Occam with his razor and on the other by Morgan at his cannon. I think therefore I am! I think??? All truth, like love, is eternal—while it lasts. We all do murder the things we love, mostly by the word unsaid. What so false as truth is, false to thee Where the serpent's tooth is, shun the tree When the apple reddens, do not pry Lest we lose our Eden, Eve and I. Robert Browning But then Browning did not understand what it is Adam learned from the bite of the apple! (see Gen. 4.1) by and collected by PARKJ. WHITEf So many ask God to grant so much—and then take so much for granted! Complaint of a patron of the arts, overheard on emerging from a symphony concert: "The agnostics of that old auditorium are so bad 1 could not appreciate the music." *Address: 339 East Park Avenue, Long Beach, New York. tAddress: 410 Melville Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63130. Material appearing under this title is collected with the aim of making the serious a bit less serious, the ponderous a bit less heavy, and the reading hours a bit more fun. Toward this goal we invite a guest editor of this feature for each issue. Will readers volunteer to share their senses of humor by collecting or recollecting items that have brought smiles to their faces? We invite your participation. Originals are also welcomed. Perspectives in Biology andMedicine, 29, 3, Part 1 ¦ Spring 1986 | 461 WhyJohn the Baptist couldn't qualify as Minister for Parish Development: He asked his congregation, "Oh offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"—Matt. 3.7 I don't mind Mr. Gladstone having the ace of trumps up his sleeve. I do mind his being so certain that God put it there!—Lord Henry la Boucher I know of no more frightening scene than that of a group of Scotch Presbyterian deacons rising from their knees to do the work of God.—Anonymous An honest man's the noblest work of God.—Alexander Pope An honest God's the noblest work of man.—Robert G. Ingersoll Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.—Robert Burns Each look, each movement, every word and tone Should tell your patient you are all his own,— Not the mere artist, purchased to attend, But the warm, ready, self-forgetting friend, Whose genial visit in itself combines The best of cordials, tonic, anodynes. Oliver Wendell Holmes by LAWRENCE L. HIRSCHt The first liar has a significant advantage. Severe enforcement of a bad law will hasten its repeal. Corollary—faith and morality cannot be legislated. An emotionless life is biologically impossible. Humans need simple answers for complex problems. Anonymity tends to obtund probity. Intellectual objectivity is often seduced by semantic skullduggery.¿University of Health Sciences, Chicago Medical School, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, Illinois 60064. 462 I It Has Been Said The importance of an occupation varies directly with its adroitness for selfperpetuation . A stupid person cannot be advised. Morality is the root, as well as consequence, of survival. It is sometimes necessary to belabor the obvious. Long-term planning is anticipatory expiation for short-term fiasco. Economic compulsion determines ethical perspective. Trees must be distinguished from the forest—even if there is but one tree. EVOLUTION Yield to the living example that confines probabilities of being. Note the form of existence guided by time-worn principle. Behold the molecular crisis, a secret past is burning. An explosion resides within; Cry, the coming new day. William Steiner Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 29, 3, Part 1 ¦ Spring 1986 \ 463 ...