. 24)4. CHARACTERISTIC. * 371 



system, because only in this it is possible, that one single 

 characteristic term should not be found sufficient for a ge- 

 neral distinction. This natural character it is, which re- 

 quires the greatest possible Conciseness and Uniformity. 

 Character essentialis, quo brevior, eo etiam prcestantior est. 

 LINN. Phil. Bot. 187. The shorter the character is, the 

 more facility and certainty it will afford to the distinction ; 

 and this facility and certainty it is, which we demand in a 

 character. The more uniformly we arrange the charac- 

 ters of the same kind, the less likely we are to omit any 

 characteristic marks. Hence the characters should not 

 contain any thing, but what is unavoidably required for 

 the distinction and the evidence in the determination of the 

 species ; and every superfluous word, every word of an am- 

 biguous signification, is reprehensible ; so is every restric- 

 tion in regard to time, or other relations, and, above all, 

 every verbal exception, quite contrary to the idea of a cha- 

 racter. Even now, at least in respect to the Natural His- 

 tory of the Mineral Kingdom, it is not superfluous to add : 

 Oratorio stylo in charactcre, nil magis abominabile. LINN. 

 Phil. Bot. 199. 



The higher the degree of classification, within the sphere 

 of which the distinction is to take place, the more it is ne- 

 cessary to bestow all possible attention upon the above 

 mentioned properties of the characters. For if the first 

 distinction be not evident and correct, the subsequent ones 

 will be still less worthy our consideration. It is obvious 

 that the characters will acquire the properties of concise- 

 ness and uniformity to a comparatively higher degree, the 

 more the system corresponds to nature, in proportion like- 

 wise to the correctness and consistency within itself, with 

 which it expresses the relations of the natural-historical 

 resemblance. The characters of the classes and of the ge- 

 nera possess these properties to a considerable extent. Only 

 the characters of some of the orders in the second class are 

 longer, they contain more characteristic marks, than it is 

 desirable they should contain. Though in this degree of 

 classification the variety in the connexion among the 



