380 CHARACTERISTIC, . 247. 



the system, as fur as experience allows, must have been 

 completed ; then only it becomes possible to compare the 

 different homologous unities which it contains, with each 

 other, classes with classes, orders with orders, genera with 

 genera, species with species, in order to discover the charac- 

 teristic marks in which they differ, and from which their 

 characters must be formed. 



Hence our mode of considering the Characteristic in the 

 natural system will only then be correct, if we keep in 

 mind that the order, the genus, &c. is not produced and 

 determined by the character, but that the character de- 

 pends upon the order, the genus, <&c. Scias characterem non 

 constitucre Genus, sed Genus characterem. Characterem non esse 

 ut Genus fiat, sed ut Genus noscatur. LINN. Phil. Bot. 169. 

 We must not, therefore, look for the reasons for which the 

 unities of the system have been adopted and determined, 

 in these characters, from which they never can be deduced, 

 because they consist solely in the relations of natural-his- 

 torical similarity, by which the objects either approach to, 

 or recede from each other, a matter brought to full evi- 

 dence in the preceding paragraphs. The only object of the 

 Characteristic is to collect with facility the individuals oc- 

 curring in nature, under the ideas of the system. This is 

 effected without regard to any thing, except the distinctive 

 characters. The idea of the species, or of any higher uni- 

 ty, does not come into consideration, since in general the 

 Characteristic has nothing to do with the developement or 

 establishment of general ideas, which belongs to the 

 Theory of the System. Here we do not ask, which pro- 

 perties are peculiar to the bodies, but only what are the 

 properties in which they differ. The characters of a spe- 

 cies, or of any other of the systematic unities, must not be 

 considered as defective or erroneous, if they should not con- 

 tain so many characteristic marks as are necessary for ex- 

 citing the idea of the species ; for this is not its object, and 

 belongs to the General Description. Every character is 

 perfect, which affords a general distinction within its 

 sphere, and thus attains its object. It would be an error to 



