126 Presidential Address 



body may be adduced as an instance of such an operation, 

 without ascending to the more striking case of engineering 

 works; while in a chemical or physical or biological labora- 

 tory innumerable so to speak "unnatural" things are done, 

 and the ordinary operations of nature designedly inter- 

 fered with. 



Page 91-92 



Some examples of purely inorganic crystallisation, 

 especially when viewed by polarised light, are extraordin- 

 arily beautiful, and sometimes simulate the appearance of 

 gorgeous vegetation or of feather markings. It must be 

 admitted that to draw a clear line between such purely 

 automatic molecular arrangements and those which are 

 brought about through the agency of life is by no means 

 easy. The material world itself when closely examined is 

 found to be saturated with beauty as well as with law and 

 order, and it is far from surprising that the purely inorganic 

 realm has to many investigators seemed sufficient to ac- 

 count for everything. Until we know more clearly in 

 what way life acts as it does, until we understand more 

 fully the method of the interaction of mind and matter, 

 these things must remain a matter of empirical experience 

 admitted but not explained. The formulation of a 

 satisfactory theory must await the attainment of deeper 

 knowledge. Meanwhile all the careful investigation that 

 is going on, in biology, in psychology, and in every direc- 

 tion, is all to the good by whatever provisional hypothesis 

 the worker is guided. 



Page 93 



The quotation here, and that on page 97 also, are from 

 the writings of Rabindranath Tagore in his book called 

 Gitanjali, which he wrote both in Hindustani and in 

 English, and which constitutes an implicit message of peace 



