Noble Smithson

“ No other man has ever suggested any more plausible theory, than Darwin’s “gemmules,” of the manner in which the organs and parts of the parents’ bodies may be supposed to modify and affect those of the child. But this theory was rejected by every one, but Darwin, as absurd and impossible.
Every human being begins life as fertilized ovum, in which there is no eye. No part of the eyes of the father is transferred, bodily, to those of the child; nor is any part of the eyes of the mother. Every part of each eye must be made anew; each part must have the proper structure, form, and size ”

“ When the cells in an embryo body begin to grow there is no apparent reason why they should not continue to grow and multiply, forever. Now, what psychic force or agency ascertains and determines when the work of building up the animal body has been completed? What force or agency equalizes the growth and waste of cells in a mature animal body and keeps it of the same form, size, and weight until the decay of old age comes on? ”

“ According to the materialist, there is no such thing as a personal God, nor a human soul. He maintains that life, intellect, memory and will-power are [18] mere properties of the human body as a physical structure; and that death works the absolute annihilation of the body and the Ego. In his view, there is no life, punishment nor pleasure after death. He, therefore, resolves to make the most of his life, and to get all the ease, comfort and pleasure that it affords, without regard to anything that may happen after death. ”

“ What are “the laws impressed on matter by the Creator,” that have anything to do with the reproduction of animals and plants? What laws “impressed on matter” have any bearing on the question whether animals and plants have arisen from inorganic matter, by spontaneous generation or by special creation? Perhaps Darwin means to say that he supposes the Creator would naturally make one or a few primordial forms of animal and plant and turn them loose upon the earth to shift for themselves subject [113] to “secondary causes,” namely, the factors of evolution. ”

“ In other words, if it is determined that the child shall be a male, every non-sexual organ and part of his body must be so differentiated and modified as to make a man of him, in both mind and body. On the other hand, if the child is to be a female, all of her non-sexual organs and parts must be so differentiated and modified as to make a woman of her, with all of the qualities, characteristics and traits that belong to woman.
Intellect, memory, will-power, force and motion—creative force—are necessary to convert a sexless embryo body into a male or female child. ”

“ And so far from the fully developed organism’s being simply the germ plus the nutriment, which it has absorbed, it is probable that the adult contains neither in form, nor in substance, more than an inappreciable fraction of the constituents of the germ, and that it is almost wholly made up of assimilated and metamorphosed nutriment.”
This being true, it cannot be said that the germ (fertilized ovum) ever develops into a man or woman. On the contrary it is annihilated; and its identity is wholly lost among the daughter-cells which are made of the mother’s food. ”

“ But we cannot believe that any possible combination of atoms could automatically take on the energies and phenomena of life. Any good chemist can make the same combination of atoms that is found in the fertilized ovum; but his combination would not absorb and assimilate food, it would not live, develop nor grow.
Life is not a property of matter but something wholly different from it. Matter may exist without life; but apparently, life cannot exist without matter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The word ovum is defined as: “An egg in a broad biological sense; and the proper product of an ovary; the female germ or seed, which, when fertilized by the male sperm, is capable of developing into an individual like the parents.... An ovum consists of a quantity of protoplasm or cell-substance called the vitellus or yolk inclosed in a cell-wall or vitelline membrane, and provided with a nucleus and nucleolus.” ”

“ Prior to the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859, belief in the theory of special creation was well nigh universal among scientists as well as laymen. But immediately after the publication of that work the scientific world accepted Darwin’s theory as absolute truth, not only as to animals and plants, but extended the Darwinian principle of materialism to all other branches of science. Materialism permeated all literature and became a fad. ”

“ In this little work, I shall make an humble effort to prove that there is a living personal God; that He directly and specially creates each human being; makes its body and endows it with life and with an immortal soul. ”