I am informed that, in the Erse language, the word used to denote a man who has nothing, signifies properly one who has no head of cattle; which affords a presumption that, in the countries where this language was spoken, pastorage was nearly coeval with property.It is, at the same time difficult to imagine, that people should possess the art of managing a chariot drawn by horses, without having previously learnt something of the management of herds and flocks: Not to mention, that, in those parts of Britain which were known to the Romans, the pasturing of cattle was understood for ages before the time when Ossian is supposed to have lived.
27.The battle of Lora.
28.Pope's Odyssey, book i, l.453.
29.Among the Franks, so early as the compilation of the Salique law, it appears that a high degree of reserve was practised between the sexes.M.L'Abb?Velly quotes, from that ancient code, the following article, 'Any man who has shaken hands with a free woman shall be made to pay a penalty, of fifteen gold sous.'
And he adds, 'If our century is admittedly more polished than that of our ancient legislators, it is at least neither so respectful nor so reserved.' Histoire de France.tom.1, p.134.
30.M.de la Curne de Sainte Palaye has collected some extraordinary instances of that zeal with which those who enjoyed the honour of knighthood endeavoured to expose any lady who had lost her reputation.-- 'Et vous diray encore plus,' says an old author, 'comme j'ay ouy racompter ?plusieurs Chevaliers qui virent celluy Messire Geoffroy, qui disoit que quand il chevauchoit par les champs, et il vcoit le chasteau ou manoir de quelque Dame, il demandoit tousjours ?qui il estoit; et quand on lui disoit, il est a celle, se le Dame estoit blasmee de son honneur, il se fust plustost detourn?d'une demi lieue qu'il ne fust venu jusques devant la porte; et l?prenoit ung petit de croye qu'il portoit, et notoit cetter porte, et y faisoit ung signet, et s'en venoit.'
31.Proverbs, chap xxxi, ver.i 3, etc.
32.Thucydides, lib.2.
33.Lysias, Orat.cont.Diogit.
34.See the oration of Lysias, in defence of Euphiletus, translated by Dr Gillies.
35.What is here said with respect to polygamy is only applicable to that institution as it takes place among opulent and luxurious nations; for in barbarous countries, where it is introduced in a great measure from motives of conveniency, and where it is accompanied with little or no jealousy, it cannot have the same consequences.
36.By the Roman law, about this period, divorces were granted upon any pretence whatever, and might be procured at the desire of either party.At the same time, the manners, which produced this law, disposed the people very frequently to lay hold of the privilege which it gave them; in so much that we read of few Romans of rank who had not been once divorced, if not oftener.To mention only persons of the gravest and most respectable character: M.Brutus repudiated his wife Claudia, though there was no stain upon her reputation.Cicero put away his wife Terentia, after she had lived with him thirty years, and also his second wife Publilia, whom he had married in his old age.His daughter Tullia was repudiated by Dolabella.Terentia, after she was divorced from Cicero, is said to have had three successive husbands, the first of whom was Cicero's enemy, Sallust the historian.It was formerly mentioned that M.Cato, after his wife Marcia had brought him three children, gave her away to his friend Hortensius.Many of those trifling causes which gave rise to divorce are taken notice of by Valerius Maximus.Seneca declares that some women of illustrious rank were accustomed to reckon their years, not by the number of consuls, but of husbands.[De beneficiis.] As a further proof of the profligacy of that age, it is observed that men were sometimes induced to marry from the prospect merely of enriching themselves by the forfeiture of the wife's dower, when she committed adultery.
Valerius Maximus, lib.6, c.3.
37.The action for the recovery of such stolen goods was not called conditio furtiva, but actio rerum amotarum.
38.Heredipetae.
39.'Do thou, O prophet, tell me forthwith how I may amass riches, and heaps of money.In troth I have told you and tell you again.Use your craft to lie at catch for the last wills of old men: and do not, if one or two cunning chaps escape by biting the bait off the hook, either lay aside hope, or quit the art, though disappointed in your aim.' [See the whole of the 5th Satire, B.2of Horace.] The Volpone, of Johnson, is entirely founded upon this part of ancient manners; but the ridicule of that performance is in a great measure lost, as the original from which it is drawn, and of which it is a faithful copy, has no place in any modern country.
