ereby prejudiced: for, as we
said, there are only three points of time which have to be regarded.
Testamentary capacity thus does not mean merely capacity to make a will;
it also means capacity to take for oneself, or for the father or master
in whose power one is, under the will of another person: and this latter
kind of testamentary capacity is quite independent of the capacity to
make a will oneself. Accordingly, even lunatics, deaf persons, afterborn
children, infants, children in power, and other persons' slaves are said
to have testamentary capacity; for though they cannot make a valid will,
they can acquire for themselves or for another under a will made by
someone else.

5 External heirs have the privilege of deliberating whether they will
accept or disclaim an inheritance. But if a person who is entitled
to disclaim interferes with the inheritance, or if one who has the
privilege of deliberation accepts it, he no longer has the power of
relinquishing it, unless he is a minor under the age of twentyfive
years, for minors obtain relief from the praetor when they incautiously
accept a disadvantageous inheritance, as well as when they take any
other injudicious step.

6 It is, however, to be observed that the Emperor Hadrian once relieved
even a person who had attained his majority, when, after his accepting
the inheritance, a great debt, unknown at the time of acceptance, had
come to light. This was but the bestowal of an especial favour on
a single individual; the Emperor Gordian subsequently extended the
privilege, but only to soldiers, to whom it was granted as a class. We,
however, in our benevolence have placed this benefit within the reach of
all our subjects, and drafted a constitution as just as it is splendid,
under which, if heirs will but observe its terms, they can accept an
inheritance without being liable to creditors and legatees beyond the
value of the property. Thus so far as their liability is concerned there
is no need for them to deliberate on acceptance, unless they fail to
observe the procedure of our constitution, and prefer deliberation, by
which they will remain liable to all the risks of acceptance under the
older law.

7 An external heir, whether his right accrue to him under a will or
under the civil law of intestate succession, can take the inheritance
either by acting as heir, or by the mere intention to accept. By acting
as heir is mean, for instance, using things belonging to the