This paper gives a declarative specification of a popular inheritance system and shows how simple changes to this specification can result in different path-based reasoners. This parameterized definition provides a deeper understanding of the fundamental differences between some of the more popular path-based inheritance reasoners. In particular, it allows the clarification of some of the results on the complexity of reasoning in the various systems. The uniform framework also allows definition of novel systems which constitute intermediate points in the space of possible reasoners, and facilitates perspicuous Prolog implementation.