232 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



loss. This I know, that no vision of truth can come except 

 in the absence of all sources of distraction, and when the 

 mind has reached the point of rest. 



Public life, and the various professions will be the appro- 

 priate spheres of activity for many aspiring young men. 

 But for my disciples, I call on those very few, who, realising 

 some inner call, will devote their whole life with strength- 

 ened character and determined purpose to take part in 

 that infinite struggle to win knowledge for its own sake and 

 see truth face to face. 



ADVANCEMENT AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE 



The work already carried out in my laboratory on the 

 response of matter, and the unexpected revelations in plant 

 life, foreshadowing the wonders of the highest animal life, 

 have opened out very extended regions of inquiry in Physics, 

 in Physiology, in Medicine, in Agriculture and even in 

 Psychology. Problems, hitherto regarded as insoluble, have 

 now been brought within the sphere of experimental investi- 

 gation. These inquiries are obviously more extensive than 

 those customary either among physicists or physiologists, 

 since demanding interests and aptitudes hitherto more or 

 less divided between them. In the study of Nature, there 

 is a necessity of the dual view-point, this alternating yet 

 rhythmically unified interaction of biological thought with 

 physical studies, and physical thought with biological studies. 

 The future worker with his freshened grasp of physics, his 

 fuller conception of the inorganic world, as indeed thrilling 

 with ' the promise and potency of life ' will redouble his 

 former energies of work and thought. Thus he will 

 be in a position to winnow the old knowledge with finer 

 sieves, to re-search it with new enthusiasm and subtler 

 instruments. And thus with thought and toil and time he 

 may hope to bring fresher views into the old problems. 

 His handling of these will be at once more vital and more 

 kinetic, more comprehensive and unified. 



