Moreover by a structural formula he indicates the play of the atomic activities which results in the formation of the new compound. The atomic theory described here belongs exclusively to the province of natural sciences. Unconcerned with any opinions either about the nature of simple bodies and their properties, or about the substantial essence of the molecule of the compound, it leaves the field open to philosophical speculations which transcend empirical date. This system is the philosophic interpretation of chemical atomism. They are distinguished only by a quantitative difference of mass and motion.
All corporeal properties are reducible to modes of local motion.
The substantial being of the atom is itself inert, possessing no inherent principle of activity. Communicated local motion constitutes the whole of its energy, which is therefore merely borrowed. Intrinsic finality of the substantial adaptation of beings to determined ends is for modern cosmology a useless fiction. The working of natural forces and the harmonious succession of material phenomena is adequately explained by mechanical laws. This is more or less the theory adopted by the majority of modern scientists, either unemphatically or emphatically.