Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion is written in these words:

“Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it is compelled, by force, to change that state.”—(Encyc. Brit. (9 ed.) 15, p. 676, “Mechanics.”)

“Energy may be defined,” says the Britannica, “as the power of doing work, or of overcoming resistance. A bent spring possesses energy, for it is capable of doing work in returning to its natural form; a charge of gun powder possesses energy for it is capable of doing work in exploding; a Leyden jar, charged with electricity possesses energy, for it is capable of doing work in being discharged.”—(Encyc. Brit. (9 ed.) 8, pp. 205-206, “Energy.”)

“Force is that which affects the motion of matter.”—(Encyc. Brit. (9 ed.) 7, p. 581, “Dynamics.”)

“The conclusion, which appears inevitable,” it says on another page, “is that whatever matter may be the other reality in the physical universe, energy, which is never found unassociated with matter, depends, in all its widely varied forms upon motion of matter.” (Encyc. Brit. (9 ed.) 15, p. 748, “Mechanics.”)

The sense of the above quotation is this: There are two realities in the physical universe: (1) matter, whatever it may be; (2) energy, which is always associated with matter. Energy “depends, in all its varied forms, upon motion of matter.” For example, let us suppose that we have three balls, designated as A, B, C, resting on a table in a straight line, one inch apart. Suppose that I strike A and drive it against B, that B strikes and moves C. In this case my arm moves and generates energy or force, which moves A against B, and B against C. The motion of my arm is the force which moves A; the motion of A is the force which moves B, and the motion of B is the force which moves C. Thus, we have demonstrated that energy or force generates motion; and that motions produces force; that is, that each is convertible into the other.

“Motion” is defined as “change of place; transition from one point or position in space to another; continuous variation of position.” (Cent. Dic. 5, p. 3872.)

Every human being begins life as a fertilized ovum, which is about as large as one-sixth of a pin’s head. At birth, an infant weighs from five to nine pounds, the average weight being six and one-half pounds. (New International Encyc. 7, p. 775.) It is then millions of times larger than a fertilized ovum. In other words: millions of atoms have been selected, assembled, chemically combined and mechanically arranged and grouped in such a manner as to form the body of a living infant, which is a complete miniature model of the body of a man or woman.

It is obvious that the materials of which the embryo body is built up, except the fertilized ovum, are derived from the food eaten by the mother; that her heart and arteries generate the forces and produce the motions which carry the materials to the building site of the embryo, just as the builder assembles the bricks, stones, sand, lime, lumber, nails and other materials to build a house.

The embryo body is a compound physical structure built of cells, as a house is built of bricks. The atoms and cells, of which it is composed, are subject to all the laws of force and motion, to the same extent, and in the same manner that bricks are. Nor have they any more intellect, memory nor will-power than a brick has.

Perhaps the first thing that an infant does, after birth, is to breathe. In order to do this, air must be forced into, and out of its lungs. To enable the heart to beat, its auricles must dilate and take the blood into it; and its ventricles must contract and force the blood out of it, and into the arteries. So that every time one breathes, and every time one’s heart beats, force is exerted and motion of air and blood is produced. Every time one takes a drink of water or a bite of bread he must exert sufficient force to raise it, and produce sufficient motion to bring it to his mouth. Every time one takes a step he exerts sufficient force and produces sufficient motion to move his body the distance that he steps. For example, suppose that A, weighing two hundred pounds, gets on an electric street car and rides a mile. It is obvious that the electric motor has exerted sufficient force and produced sufficient motion of A’s body to move two hundred pounds, the distance of a mile. Now, if A had walked along the same railway track the same distance, it is clear that he would have exerted the same force and produced the same motion of his body that the motor did.

We eat, drink, speak, move, act, work, live—do everything by force and motion. When they cease, death comes.

Everything that a man can do with a physical body is resolvable into force and motion. He may move a body from one place to another; he may group two or more bodies together; or he may take two or more bodies apart; or he may cut or break a body into two or more parts. But, at last, all of these operations are equivalent to moving one or more bodies from one place to another, by force and motion.

A sewing machine, adding machine, watch, steam engine, and every other machine is constructed by force and motion. Every piece of music is sung or played by force and motion. Every painting is made by grouping two or more pigments (colors) together in a particular manner by force and motion.

Intellect, memory and will-power are necessary to produce two or more forces and motions in a prescribed order and within a given time. For example, each note in a piece of music requires, for its production, a certain force and peculiar motion (vibration) of cord, pipe or string within a certain time. It is obvious that intellect, memory and will-power are necessary to sing or play any piece of music. Before anyone can speak any given word he must have intellect, memory and will-power: (1) he must know the word to be uttered, (2) he must remember it until it is uttered, (3) he must have the will-power necessary to exert the force and produce the motion of air necessary to utter it. Let the reader speak the words: “earth,” “air,” “fire,” “water,” and analyze the process.

Intellect, memory and will-power are necessary to generate, guide, and control the forces and motions required to make a watch or any other compound machine or structure, within a given time. Suppose that a watchmaker is required to make each spring, wheel and part of a watch by hand, to put every part in its place and start it to running on or about the 280th day after he begins the work. (Haeckel Ev. Man, p. 199.) To do this work he must have intellect, memory and will-power to generate, guide, and control and time the forces and motions which are necessary to make each part of the watch and to fit and group them together when completed. He must know and remember every part of it; remember the material of which it is made; remember its form and size; compare each piece with the pattern; remember the time in which he is to do the work. He must have the will-power to begin and continue the work until it is done, doing such part of it each day as to complete it on or about the day fixed.

But the forces and motions, which build up the body of the embryo, work in the dark without brain or sense-organs. To put the watchmaker on the same basis with the Creator, we will have to suppose that the watchmaker is blind and has no sense of touch. Would it be possible for him to make a watch under these conditions?

The mother’s food is taken into her mouth, chewed and mixed with saliva and passes into her stomach. Here it is mixed with gastric juice and converted into chyme. It then passes into the small intestine (duodenum) where it is mixed with pancreatic secretion, bile and “the secretion of the glands Brunner and the Crypts of LieberkÜhn” and thus converted into chyle. Most of the “nutritive constituents” of the chyle pass through the epithelium of the small intestines into the subjacent blood and lymphatic vessels and are carried off. Those passing into the blood capillaries are taken by the portal vein to the liver; while those entering the lacteals are carried into the left jugular vein by the thoracic duct. (Martin, Human Body, pp. 361-377.)

This is a very brief outline of the processes, by which the food, one eats is converted into blood and passes into the arteries and veins.

The embryo at first, has no heart, arteries, nor veins. After its body has developed and grown to a certain extent, the mother’s heart and arteries carry arterial blood to it through the “umbilical vein.” This blood finally reaches the heart of the embryo, and is carried by its heart and arteries to every part of its body, then returned through “two umbilical arteries” and the placenta to the veins of the mother. In this way, the embryo has a sort of circulation of its own. But it appears to have no independent circulation during the first three or four months of its life; and the blood which circulates through it must be aerated or oxygenated in the mother’s lungs.

We may say, in general terms, that the mother’s heart and arteries exert all the force and produce all the motion which build up the embryo. It is true that the work of her heart and arteries is supplemented, after a time, by that of the heart and arteries of the embryo but the latter work is a small part of the whole.

The water in a stream runs from its head to its mouth because the latter is nearer to the center of the earth than the former. In other words, the water in every stream is carried forward by the force of gravitation. The water in a stream carries silt (mud, fine earth, etc.) which is deposited along its course and at its mouth. As already stated, the mother’s blood is carried to the embryo body by the force of her heart and arteries. Her blood conveys to the embryo, the materials of which it is built up, as the water in a stream carries silt to its mouth. Her blood has no more intellect, memory nor will-power than the water in a stream.

If a portion of the silt at the mouth of the Mississippi should be deposited at its mouth in the form of a colossal man, showing his head, neck, body, arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc., it would be considered a great miracle. But the formation of the embryo body in the womb of its mother, with all its organs and parts is far more miraculous than the formation of the silt man of the Mississippi would be.

The reader may reply that the atoms of which the embryo is built up are not merely deposited but they are absorbed by the fertilized ovum and its daughter-cells, and converted into new cells; that these cells are chemically combined and differentiated and mechanically arranged in such a manner as to form the embryo body, etc. True; but force and motion are necessary to produce new cells, to make the necessary chemical combinations and mechanical arrangements; and these forces and motions must be generated, guided and controlled by a Being possessed of a conscious intellect, memory, will-power and creative force.