rnkonig's
work, is very inaccurately printed.--M.]

[Footnote 52: In his Oration for Murena, (c. 9--13,) Cicero turns into
ridicule the forms and mysteries of the civilians, which are represented
with more candor by Aulus Gellius, (Noct. Attic. xx. 10,) Gravina, (Opp
p. 265, 266, 267,) and Heineccius, (Antiquitat. l. iv. tit. vi.) * Note:
Gibbon had conceived opinions too decided against the forms of procedure
in use among the Romans. Yet it is on these solemn forms that the
certainty of laws has been founded among all nations. Those of the
Romans were very intimately allied with the ancient religion, and
must of necessity have disappeared as Rome attained a higher degree
of civilization. Have not modern nations, even the most civilized,
overloaded their laws with a thousand forms, often absurd, almost always
trivial? How many examples are afforded by the English law! See, on the
nature of these forms, the work of M. de Savigny on the Vocation of our
Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence, Heidelberg, 1814, p. 9, 10.--W.
This work of M. Savigny has been translated into English by Mr.
Hayward.--M.]

A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the sage of Rome, who, in
a stricter sense, may be considered as the authors of the civil law. The
alteration of the idiom and manners of the Romans rendered the style
of the Twelve Tables less familiar to each rising generation, and the
doubtful passages were imperfectly explained by the study of legal
antiquarians. To define the ambiguities, to circumscribe the latitude,
to apply the principles, to extend the consequences, to reconcile the
real or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler and more important
task; and the province of legislation was silently invaded by the
expounders of ancient statutes. Their subtle interpretations concurred
with the equity of the praetor, to reform the tyranny of the darker
ages: however strange or intricate the means, it was the aim of
artificial jurisprudence to restore the simple dictates of nature and
reason, and the skill of private citizens was usefully employed to
undermine the public institutions of their country. [521] The revolution
of almost one thousand years, from the Twelve Tables to the reign of
Justinian, may be divided into three periods, almost equal in duration,
and distinguished from each other by the mode of instruction and the
character of the civilians. [53] Pride and ignorance contributed, during
the first period, to