INTRODUCTIONo 5 



which are hut momentary cannot, then, furnish characters 

 they must he drawn from tlic conformation. 



There is scarcely a single hcing which has a simple charac- 

 ter, or can he recognised hy one single feature of its conforma- 

 tion ; a union of several of these traits are almost always re- 

 quired to distinguish one heing from those that surround it, 

 who also have some but not all of them, or who have them 

 combined with others of which the first is destitute. The 

 more numerous the beings to be distinguished, the greater 

 should be the number of traits ; so that to distinguish an indi- 

 vidual being from all others, a complete description of it should 

 enter into its character. 



It is to avoid this inconvenience, that divisions and subdi- 

 visions have been invented. A certain number only of neigh- 

 bouring beings are compared with each other, and their cha- 

 racter need only to express their differences, which, by the 

 supposition itself, are the least part of their conformation. 

 Such a re-union is termed a genus. 



The same inconvenience would be experienced in distin- 

 guishing genera from each other, were it not for the repetition 

 of the operation in uniting the adjoining genera, so as to form 

 an order, the orders to form a class, &c. Intermediate sub- 

 divisions may also be established. 



This scaffolding of divisions, the superior of which contain 

 the inferior, is called a tnethod. It is in some respects a sort of 

 dictionary, in which we proceed from the properties of things 

 to arrive at their names; being the reverse of the common 

 ones, in which we proceed from the name to arrive at the 

 property. 



When the method is good, it does more than teach us names. 

 If the subdivisions have not been established arbitrarily, but 

 are based on the true fundamental relations, on the essential 

 resemblances of beings, the method is the surest means of re- 

 ducing the properties of beings to general rules, of expressing 

 them in the fe^west words, and of stamping them on the me- 

 mory. 



To render it such, we einploy an assiduous comparison of 

 beings, directed by the principle of the subordination of cha- 



