INTRODUCTION. 13 



orders to form a class, &c. Intermediate subdivisions may also be 

 established. 



This scaffolding of divisions, the superior of which contain the 

 inferior, is called a method. It is in some respects a sort of dic- 

 tionary, 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 reducing the properties of 

 beings to general rules, of expressing them in the fewest words, and 

 of stamping them on the memory. 



To render it such, we apply an assiduous comparison of beings, 

 directed by the principle of the subordination of characters, which 

 is itself derived from that of the conditions of existence. The parts 

 of a being possessing a mutual adaptation, some traits of character 

 exclude others, while on the contrary, there are others that require 

 them. When, therefore, we perceive such or such, traits in a being, 

 we can calculate before hand those that co-exist in it, or those that 

 are incompatible with them. The parts, the properties, or the traits 

 of conformation, which have the greatest number of these relations 

 of incompatibility or of co-existence with others, or, in other words, 

 that exercise the most marked influence upon the whole of the being, 

 are called the important characters, dominating characters; the 

 others are the subordinate characters, all varying in degree. 



This influence of character is sometimes determined rationally, 

 by the consideration of the nature of the organ. When this is im- 

 practicable, we have recourse to simple observation; and a sure mark 

 by which we may recognise the important characters, and one which 

 is drawn from their own nature, is their superior constancy, and 

 that in a long series of different beings, approximated according to 

 their degrees of similitude, these characters are the last to vary. 



That they should be preferred for distinguishing the great divisions, 

 and that in proportion as we descend to the inferior subdivisions, we 

 can also descend to subordinate and variable characters, is a rule 

 resulting equally from their influence and constancy. 



There can be but one perfect method, which is the natural method. 

 We thus name an arrangement in which beings of the same genus 

 are placed nearer to each other than to those of the other genera; the 



