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body moves, if we ignore the will of God in the matter ; but it 
is equally impossible, for me, at least, to understand, how any 
one can deny the fact. 
22. Another term which may be briefly noticed before passing 
on is “ Energy.” This is sometimes spoken of as Force, at 
others as Motion, and again as Working Power. It is made to 
mean any or all of these; but usually it implies motion or working 
power; and in this sense we shall always refer to it. Whatever 
may be the views of most of our modern physicists on these 
minor points, they are generally united in upholding the great 
doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, — a doctrine which has 
been called one of the greatest discoveries of the nineteenth 
century, — a doctrine which has a very pretentious appearance 
at first sight, but which, when touched by the spear of sound 
logic and careful science, dwindles into a bundle of vague and 
unwarranted assumptions. The doctrine stated in its simplest 
form is, “ that the sum of actual and potential energy in the 
world is constant,” 
23. The first assumption is that, motion, or energy, never 
begins. Thus Mr. Grove writes (p. 26), “ With the perceptible 
phenomena of motion the mental conception has been invariably 
associated, to which I have before alluded, and to which the term 
force is given, the which conception, when we analyze it, refers 
us to some antecedent motion.” Now, the mental conception 
of force does not refer to any antecedent motion, but to the power 
of originating motion. The statement here, however, is, — no 
motion without previous motion. Tyndall teaches the same, 
regarding it as a self-evident truth that “ the cause of motion 
must itself be motion.” He also asserts that “ we can make no 
movement which is not accounted for by the contemporaneous 
extinction of some other movement.” Yet, in opposition to 
this, he speaks of necessary as distinct from spontaneous action ; 
the transformation as distinct from the creation of force. 
Dr. Bence Jones writes (“ Croonian Lectures,” p. 37), “Ac- 
cording to modern ideas, the different forms (of energy) are so 
related to one another that none can be lost, and none can be 
produced except by passing into or out of some other form of 
energy.” And Mr. Spencer, in still stronger terms, writes, “ To 
think of motion as either being created or annihilated, — to 
think of nothing becoming something, or something becoming 
nothing, --is to establish in consciousness a relation between 
two terms, of which one is absent from consciousness, which is 
impossible. The very nature of intelligence negatives the 
supposition that motion can be conceived (much less known) to 
either commence or cease.” 
24. In reply to all this, we would ask why motion must be the 
