CAUSE OF MOTION NOT MATERIAL. 3 



the evolution of molecular actions to self-motive 

 and self-directive powers in matter, generally 

 recognized as Materialism. The popular interest 

 in this theory appears to be due to a desire for 

 freedom of discussion by the philosophers, who 

 claim the same privilege of studying the revela- 

 tions of the Divine will manifest in the laws that 

 govern the material world, as ecclesiastics enjoy 

 for studying the revelations of the same- Divine 

 wilt in the government of the spiritual world. 



The theory of the Newtonian Philosophy, teach- 

 ing the incapability of lifeless matter to put itself 

 in motion, is discordant with popular chemical and 

 materialistic doctrines of the existence of inherent 

 self-motive and self-directive powers in molecules. 

 This discordance, at the outset, opens the ques- 

 tion of the original source of natural motive- 

 power. If, according to the laws of Natural 

 Philosophy, nothing material can put itself in 

 motion, it follows as a logical deduction that the 

 original cause of the motion of matter must be 

 immaterial. In tracing out the original source of 

 the movements of all matter in accordance with 

 the primary law of the incapability of matter to 

 move itself, Mechanical Philosophy points, as 

 with uplifted finger, to an immaterial cause, and 

 affirms the words of the Psalmist : " The heavens 

 declare the glory of God, and the firmament 

 showeth his handy work." Consequently, Me- 

 chanical Philosophy is based on the original 



