THE BREATH OF LIFE 



ence goes, is an impossibility, and motion without 

 previous motion, is equally impossible. Yet, while 

 science shows us that this last is true among pon- 

 derable bodies where friction occurs, it is not true 

 among the finer particles of matter, where friction 

 does not exist. Here perpetual or spontaneous mo- 

 tion is the rule. The motions of the molecules of 

 gases and liquids, and their vibrations in solids, are 

 beyond the reach of our unaided senses, yet they 

 are unceasing. By analogy we may infer that while 

 living bodies, as we know them, do not and cannot 

 originate spontaneously, yet the movement that we 

 call life may and probably does take place sponta- 

 neously in the ultimate particles of matter. But 

 can atomic energy be translated into the motion of 

 ponderable bodies, or mass energy? In like man- 

 ner can, or does, this potential life of the world of 

 atoms and electrons give rise to organized living 

 beings? 



This distrust of the physical forces, or our disbe- 

 lief in their ability to give rise to life, is like a sur- 

 vival in us of the Calvinistic creed of our fathers. 

 The world of inert matter is dead in trespasses and 

 sin and must be born again before it can enter the 

 kingdom of the organic. We must supplement the 

 natural forces with the spiritual, or the supernat- 

 ural, to get life. The common or carnal nature, like 

 the natural man, must be converted, breathed upon 

 by the non-natural or divine, before it can rise to 



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