Page:The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose.djvu/253

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CHAPTER XVIII

THE DEDICATION[1]

I dedicate to-day this Institute—not merely a Laboratory but a Temple.

The power of physical methods applies to the establishment of that truth which can be realised directly through our senses, or through the vast expansion of the perceptive range by means of artificially created organs. We still gather the tremulous message when the note of the audible reaches the unheard. When human sight fails, we continue to explore the region of the invisible. The little that we can see is as nothing compared to the vastness of that which we cannot. Out of the very imperfection of his senses man has built himself a raft of thought by which he makes daring adventures on the great seas of the Unknown. But there are other truths which will remain beyond even the super-sensitive methods known to science. For these we require faith, tested not in a few years but by an entire life. And a temple is erected as a fit memorial for the establishment of that truth for which faith was needed. The personal, yet general, truth and faith whose establishment this Institute commemorates is this: that when one has gained the vision of a purpose to which he can and must dedicate himself fully, then the closed doors will be opened and the seemingly impossible become fully attainable.

  1. Sir J. C. Bose's inaugural address in dedication of the Bose Institute, November 30, 1917.

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