ervation of
the lot, and omits the third condition, which a father would naturally
consider, for he would choose out of all the citizens a son for himself,
and a husband for his daughter, with a view to his character and
disposition--the father, I say, shall forgive the legislator if he
disregards this, which to him is an impossible consideration. Let the
law about these matters where practicable be as follows: If a man dies
without making a will, and leaves behind him daughters, let his brother,
being the son of the same father or of the same mother, having no lot,
marry the daughter and have the lot of the dead man. And if he have no
brother, but only a brother's son, in like manner let them marry, if
they be of a suitable age; and if there be not even a brother's son,
but only the son of a sister, let them do likewise, and so in the fourth
degree, if there be only the testator's father's brother, or in the
fifth degree, his father's brother's son, or in the sixth degree, the
child of his father's sister. Let kindred be always reckoned in this
way: if a person leaves daughters the relationship shall proceed upwards
through brothers and sisters, and brothers' and sisters' children,
and first the males shall come, and after them the females in the same
family. The judge shall consider and determine the suitableness or
unsuitableness of age in marriage; he shall make an inspection of the
males naked, and of the women naked down to the navel. And if there be a
lack of kinsmen in a family extending to grandchildren of a brother, or
to the grandchildren of a grandfather's children, the maiden may choose
with the consent of her guardians any one of the citizens who is willing
and whom she wills, and he shall be the heir of the dead man, and the
husband of his daughter. Circumstances vary, and there may sometimes be
a still greater lack of relations within the limits of the state; and if
any maiden has no kindred living in the city, and there is some one who
has been sent out to a colony, and she is disposed to make him the heir
of her father's possessions, if he be indeed of her kindred, let him
proceed to take the lot according to the regulation of the law; but if
he be not of her kindred, she having no kinsmen within the city, and he
be chosen by the daughter of the dead man, and empowered to marry by
the guardians, let him return home and take the lot of him who died
intestate. And if a man has no children, either male or f