and Mineralogy. 
V. SysUm Characters^ or Characteristic. 
1 . How the System of Characters arises . — -The foundation of 
a natural system of mineralogy, depends on what may be called 
natural historical similarity, ( naturhistorische cehnlichlceit ). 
Hence in such a system, those objects, which are united by the 
highest degrees of that similarity, must be found nearest to each 
other. After the system has been thus completed^ so far as ex- 
perience allows, the homologous unities are to be compared to- 
gether, classes with classes, orders with orders, genera with ge- 
nera, and species with species, that so we may discover the marks 
by which they are distinguished. 
S. Nature of the distinguishing marhs in the natural and in 
an artificial system . — It is clear, that the marks now in ques- 
tion are not, and cannot be, those on which the collocation de- 
pends ; but that in this respect any mark is suitable, if it serve 
for a distinction at once certain and universal so far as it goes. 
In artificial systems, the marks of distinction, bdng the grounds 
of the division, are united with their system more closely and 
essentially. 
3. They affo7A no visible representation of the object.-— \i is 
farther clear, that the marks of distinction can afford no repre- 
sentation of the objects distinguished. They express not the 
nature of those objects, but the difference of one from certain 
others. 
4. Visible representations can be had only of individuals . — ' 
To obtain a representation of the objects themselves, all their 
marks must be given. Hence it follows, that we are able to ob- 
tain what may be called a graphical representation like this of 
individuals only, or of species, in cases where their individuals 
are all uniform, — as frequently happens in the inorganic king- 
doms of nature ; but never of a genus or an or:der. With regard 
to these divisions, as well as to species in the mineral kingdom, 
the multitude and the variety of such marks entirely destroy 
their distinctness, and render the proposed graphical description 
impossible. 
5. Difference between the system of characters and descrip- 
-The collection of marks, which serve to distinguish an 
