THE DEDICATION 229 



emerge between the realms of the Living and Non-living. 

 Inorganic matter was found anything but inert ; it also 

 was athrill under the action of multitudinous forces that 

 played on it. A common reaction seemed to bring together 

 metal, plant and animal under a general law. They all 

 exhibited essentially the same phenomena of fatigue and 

 depression, together with possibilities of recovery and of 

 exaltation, yet also that of permanent irresponsiveness 

 which is associated with death. I was filled with wonder 

 at this great generalisation ; and it was with great hope 

 that I announced my results before the Royal Society 

 results demonstrated by experiments. But the physiologists 

 present advised me, after my address, to confine myself to 

 physical investigations in which my success had been assured, 

 rather than encroach on their preserve. I had thus un- 

 wittingly strayed into the domain of a new and unfamiliar 

 caste system and so offended its etiquette. An unconscious 

 theological bias was also present which confounds ignorance 

 with faith. It is forgotten that He, who surrounded us with 

 this ever-evolving mystery of creation, the ineffable wonder 

 that lies hidden in the microcosm of the dust particle, 

 enclosing within the intricacies of its atomic form the 

 mystery of the cosmos, has also implanted in us the desire 

 to question and understand. To the theological bias was 

 added the misgivings about the inherent bent of the Indian 

 mind towards mysticism and unchecked imagination. 

 But in India this burning imagination which can extort 

 new order out of a mass of apparently contradictory 

 facts, is also held in check by the habit of meditation. 

 It is this restraint which confers the power to hold the 

 mind in pursuit of truth in infinite patience, to wait, 

 and reconsider, to experimentally test and repeatedly 

 verify. 



It is but natural that there should be prejudice, even in 

 science, against all innovations ; and I was prepared to 

 wait till the first incredulity could be overcome by further 

 cumulative evidence. Unfortunately there were other 



