asts of every family were adopted
without reproach as the children of the state.

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence.--Part VI.

The relation of guardian and ward, or in Roman words of _tutor_ and
_pupil_, which covers so many titles of the Institutes and Pandects,
is of a very simple and uniform nature. The person and property of an
orphan must always be trusted to the custody of some discreet friend.
If the deceased father had not signified his choice, the _agnats_, or
paternal kindred of the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the
natural guardians: the Athenians were apprehensive of exposing the
infant to the power of those most interested in his death; but an axiom
of Roman jurisprudence has pronounced, that the charge of tutelage
should constantly attend the emolument of succession. If the choice
of the father, and the line of consanguinity, afforded no efficient
guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomination of the praetor of
the city, or the president of the province. But the person whom they
named to this _public_ office might be legally excused by insanity or
blindness, by ignorance or inability, by previous enmity or adverse
interest, by the number of children or guardianships with which he was
already burdened, and by the immunities which were granted to the useful
labors of magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and professors. Till the
infant could speak, and think, he was represented by the tutor, whose
authority was finally determined by the age of puberty. Without his
consent, no act of the pupil could bind himself to his own prejudice,
though it might oblige others for his personal benefit. It is needless
to observe, that the tutor often gave security, and always rendered an
account, and that the want of diligence or integrity exposed him to a
civil and almost criminal action for the violation of his sacred trust.
The age of puberty had been rashly fixed by the civilians at fourteen;
* but as the faculties of the mind ripen more slowly than those of the
body, a _curator_ was interposed to guard the fortunes of a Roman youth
from his own inexperience and headstrong passions. Such a trustee had
been first instituted by the praetor, to save a family from the blind
havoc of a prodigal or madman; and the minor was compelled, by the laws,
to solicit the same protection, to give validity to his acts till he
accomplished the full period of twenty-five years. Women were condemned
to the