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His rather purple prose still resonates more than a hundred years later. Were he writing today he would have been elated by our expanded vision of life and the cosmos -- but he’d have been even more anxious about the perils we might face. He reflects the mix of optimism and anxiety — and of speculation and science — which I’ve tried to offer in this lecture. MEDAWAR But we mustn’t leap from denial to despair. So I give the last word to another sage: the eloquent biologist Peter Medawar: “The bells that toll for mankind are ............. like the bells of Alpine cattle. They are attached to our own necks, and it must be our fault if they do not make a tuneful and melodious sound.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026744