Fundamentally, essence cannot depend on the existence of something external to essence. Nothing else must exist for the essence to exist. This is not the case with accidents, whose existence depends on something else. Everything that is essence exists independently of any accident or quality, apart from the most fundamental distinctive feature. Furthermore, essence is inherent in the object, and essence exists on its own, independent of anything else. For example, an essence cannot be "having a beard" because a beard does not exist in itself, but only on a man's face. The beard cannot exist without the primary substance – the person – that the beard