“The Roman Code was merely an enunciation in words of the existing customs of the Roman people.”
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The inquiries of the jurist are in truth prosecuted much as inquiry in physic and physiology was prosecuted before observation had taken the place of assumption.
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The ancient Roman code belongs to a class of which almost every civilised nation in the world can show a sample, and which, so far as the Roman and Hellenic worlds were concerned, were largely diffused over them at epochs not widely distant from one another.
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In spite of overwhelming evidence, it is most difficult for a citizen of western Europe to bring thoroughly home to himself the truth that the civilisation which surrounds him is a rare exception in the history of the world.
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The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing.
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The Roman jurisprudence has the longest known history of any set of human institutions.
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