The first act of a new-born child is to draw a deep breath. In fact, it
will never draw a deeper, inasmuch as the passages and chambers of the
lungs, once distended with air, do not empty themselves again; it is
only a fraction of their contents which passes in and out with the flow
and the ebb of the respiratory tide. Mechanically, this act of drawing
breath, or inspiration, is of the same nature as that by which the
handles of a bellows are separated, in order to fill the bellows with
air; and, in like manner, it involves that expenditure of energy which
we call exertion, or work, or labour. It is, therefore, no mere metaphor
to say that man is destined to a life of toil: the work of respiration
which began with his first breath ends only with his last; nor does one
born in the purple get off with a lighter task than the child who first
sees light under a hedge.
How is it that the new-born infant is enabled to perform this first
instalment of the sentence of lifelong labour which no man may escape?
Whatever else a child may be, in respect of this particular question, it
is a complicated piece of mechanism, built up out of materials supplied
by its mother; and in the course of such building-up, provided with a
set of motors--the muscles. Each of these muscles contains a stock of
substance capable of yielding energy under certain conditions, one of
which is a change of state in the nerve-fibres connected with it The
powder in a loaded gun is such another stock of substance capable of
yielding energy in consequence of a change of state in the mechanism of
the lock, which intervenes between the finger of the man who pulls
the trigger and the cartridge. If that change is brought about, the
potential energy of the powder passes suddenly into actual energy, and
does the work of propelling the bullet The powder, therefore, may be
appropriately called work-stuff not only because it is stuff which is
easily made to yield work in the physical sense, but because a good
deal of work in the economical sense has contributed to its production.
Labour was necessary to collect, transport, and purify the raw sulphur
and saltpetre; to cut wood and convert it into powdered charcoal; to
mix these ingredients in the right proportions; to give the mixture the
proper grain, and so on. The powder once formed part of the stock, or
capital, of a powder-maker: and it is not only certain natural bodies
which are collected and stored in the gunpowder, but the labour bestowed
on the operations mentioned may be figuratively said to be incorporated
in it.