In the present condition of the science, the appreciation of facts is of equal importance with the collection of them.
XV.
A fact may be appreciated either as a characteristic, or as an influence.
XVI.
Facts used as signs or characteristics; and, as such, mostly applied to the purposes of classification, are either physical or moral—physical, as when we determine a class from colour of the skin; moral, as when we determine one from the purity or impurity of the habits.
XVII.
Moral characteristics are either philological (i.e. connected with the language), or non-philological (i.e. not so connected).
XVIII.
As elements of classification, the non-philological moral characters are of less value than the philological; since common conditions develop common habits; whereas nothing but imitation determines the use of similar combinations of articulate sounds in different languages.