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only cause of motion ? I cannot imagine a reply ; it seems a 
mere assumption, being unsupported by observation, as we shall 
see. What is the previous action in a case of “ spontaneous 
action/ 5 or what the pre-existent force in a case of the 
“ creation of force 55 ? If Professor Tyndall confine his state- 
ment to necessary motion, we agree with him that we must 
seek for some cause antecedent to the motion, but not that the 
cause must be itself motion. We must, in a word, seek for an 
ultimate cause that is not motion, — -for a power that can spontane- 
ously move the not-self, itself remaining at rest ; that is, we only 
explain motion when we refer it back to the will of God, or a 
sentient creature, who originated it. Mr. Spencer might also 
write as he does if motion were a substantial existence. He 
then, indeed, could say that to think of motion beginning 
would be to think of nothing becoming something ; but when 
motion is only change of place of substance, to speak in this way 
is to misuse language. It seems strange that a scientific 
man should do so, for any one may, with the greatest 
ease, conceive motion both as commencing and ceasing. 
But not only is it a conceivable thought, it is also an 
observed fact, that motion begins. There is, for example, lying 
before me a heavy book, nicely balanced on the edge of the 
table ; the slightest touch of my finger causes it to fall to the 
ground ; and, striking other things as it descends, they also all 
fall with it. Before I touched the book, it and all the others 
were at rest, so far as the surrounding objects were concerned. 
I, in causing the fall, did not .expend any appreciable muscular 
power, for contact was almost sufficient, and yet in the fall what 
motions were manifested? Where were they before the pon- 
derous literature came crashing to the ground ? Or take the 
well-known illustration of the ignition of gunpowder. There 
is a mine ready for explosion ; a train is lying beneath my 
hand ; I lower my finger and thumb half an inch, bring a spark 
into contact with the train ; presently a terrific upheaval, and a 
mountain rolls like water into the valley beneath. How little 
was the motion that caused all this — the lowering of a finger 
half an inch ; how great the motion thus produced, and yet we 
are to be told that the commencement of motion is incon- 
ceivable and untrue. 
25. “ Ah, yes/’ say our friends, “ that is true, but you are not 
taking into account the potential energy stored up in the gun- 
powder before the spark was applied, the potential energy was 
great in amount, the kinetic or actual energy but little, but 
after the explosion the kinetic increased in the same proportion 
as the potential, or latent, decreased. 55 This sounds plausible 
while we use the mystic word energy, but as it is motion with 
