. 152 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



ways the life reactions of plant and man are alike ; thus through 

 the experience of the plant it may be possible to alleviate the 

 sufferings of man. 



Bose thus concluded his Royal Institution Discourse : 



These our mute companions, silently growing beside our door, 

 have now told us the tale of their life-tremulousness and their 

 death-spasm in script that is as inarticulate as they. May it 

 not be said that their story has a pathos of its own beyond any 

 that we have conceived ? 



In realising this unity of life, is our final sense of mystery 

 deepened or lessened ? Is our sense of wonder diminished 

 when we realise in the infinite expanse of life that is silent and 

 voiceless the foreshadowing of more wonderful complexities ? 

 Is it not rather that science evokes in us a deeper sense of awe ? 

 Does not each of her new advances gain for us a step in that 

 stairway of rock which all must climb who desire to look from 

 the mountain-tops of the spirit upon the promised land of 

 truth? 



