He soon turned his attention from the
inorganic to the organic world. His revolutionary discoveries as a
plant physiologist are outpacing even his radical achievements as
a physicist."
I politely thanked my mentor. He added, "The great scientist is
one of my brother professors at Presidency College."
I paid a visit the next day to the sage at his home, which was close
to mine on Gurpar Road. I had long admired him from a respectful
distance. The grave and retiring botanist greeted me graciously. He
was a handsome, robust man in his fifties, with thick hair, broad
forehead, and the abstracted eyes of a dreamer. The precision in
his tones revealed the lifelong scientific habit.
"I have recently returned from an expedition to scientific societies
of the West. Their members exhibited intense interest in delicate
instruments of my invention which demonstrate the indivisible unity
of all life. {FN8-1} The Bose crescograph has the enormity of ten
million magnifications. The microscope enlarges only a few thousand
times; yet it brought vital impetus to biological science. The
crescograph opens incalculable vistas."
"You have done much, sir, to hasten the embrace of East and West
in the impersonal arms of science."
"I was educated at Cambridge. How admirable is the Western method
of submitting all theory to scrupulous experimental verification!
That empirical procedure has gone hand in hand with the gift for
introspection which is my Eastern heritage.
Pages:
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101