As steals the morn upon the night

Rational thinking doesn’t get much good press in this post-truth era (‘post-truth’ was the Oxford Dictionary word of the year for 2016). Politicians, media commentators, pop songs – all go for the gut response; few have a kind word for reason or the intellect. But amongst all the fear and grief Covid-19 has given rise to, there are signs (at least in some countries) of a revival of respect for truth, reason, logical thinking and the scientific method – a sudden realisation that rationality may have practical, even life and death, value. Here is a song in praise of those two currently unfashionable and oft-neglected things, reason and truth. If you expect this to be dry and intellectual, you will be surprised – on the contrary, it’s quietly rapturous, and one of the most beautiful songs its composer ever wrote. (There is a story behind this; I will share it later.) The lyrics were adapted from lines from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (–68): ‘And as the morning steals upon the night, / Melti