CHARACTERISTIC. 147 



PART IV. 

 CHARACTERISTIC. 



. 118. DEFINITION. 



The characteristic is the assemblage of certain natural 

 properties, arranged according to a certain system, for the 

 purpose of distinguishing the unities in that system. 



The characteristic pre-supposes the system, to which it is applied, 

 to have been already developed, and therefore is not the source of 

 the system. Without a system, it cannot exist; because the dis- 

 tinction of bodies, by its means, takes place only within the unities 

 of a system. 



Any single property, or a collection of several properties, if it be 

 subservient to the distinction of several species of a genus, or of 

 several genera of an order, or of several orders of a class, is termed 

 a character ; and the single properties it contains, are its character- 

 istic terms or marks. If a character contains only one characteristic 

 mark, this mark itself represents the character. 



Characters are natural or artificial, according as they refer to a 

 natural or artificial system. Their denomination corresponds to 

 their object ; thus, we have characters of the orders, characters of 

 the species, fyc. 



. 119. PPOPERTIES OF THE CHARACTERS. 



The characters must be sufficient for a precise distinction 

 within their respective spheres, and as short as the neces- 

 sary degree of evidence in the determination of the species 

 will allow. 



Character are useless, if they serve for the distinction only of 

 some of the species contained within their genus, (or order, if this 



