24 June 1804

Procedure

Ends

Ch.

'.7 Properties

'.7 Properties desirable in a system of procedure.

To exhibit a list, and that a compleat one, of the properties to be desired in a system of procedure, will be acknowledged to be an operation /atchievement/ of no mean use. This desideratum may now be accomplished, and that without any fresh labour on either side: for, the name only excepted, the thing is done /task is already performed/ /operation is compleat/. The properties desirable in a system of procedure are given when the ends which it ought to have in view /to which the course of it ought to be directed/ are given: they consist in its subserviency - in its subserviency in each case /instance/ - to those respective ends.

To the name of each inconvenience, prefix the word property, and you have a list of the properties desirable in every system of procedure. Property of avoiding to produce the inconvenience consisting in the non-application of punishment where due: - in the non-collation of rights where due: - and so on to the end. In some instances of the 12 the expression may be more contracted /brief/: but to particularize the abridgment in each case is a trouble /an operation/ that may well be spared.

What progress may be made - how much instruction or satisfaction given - by a single word well-placed! Aye, or by a single letter, subjoins the algebraist.