er of the promise.

6 Again, no valid stipulation can be made between two persons of whom
one is in the power of the other. A slave indeed cannot be under an
obligation to either his master or anybody else: but children in power
can be bound in favour of any one except their own paterfamilias.

7 The dumb, of course, cannot either stipulate or promise, nor can the
deaf, for the promisee in stipulation must hear the answer, and the
promisor must hear the question; and this makes it clear that we are
speaking of persons only who are stone deaf, not of those who (as it is
said) are hard of hearing.

8 A lunatic cannot enter into any contract at all, because he does not
understand what he is doing.

9 On the other hand a pupil can enter into any contract, provided that
he has his guardian's authority, when necessary, as it is for incurring
an obligation, though not for imposing an obligation on another person.

10 This concession of legal capacity of disposition is manifestly
reasonable in respect of children who have acquired to some
understanding, for children below the age of seven years, or who have
just passed that age, resemble lunatics in want of intelligence. Those,
however, who have just completed their seventh year are permitted, by
a beneficent interpretation of the law, in order to promote their
interests, to have the same capacity as those approaching the age of
puberty; but a child below the latter age, who is in paternal power,
cannot bind himself even with his father's sanction.

11 An impossible condition is one which, according to the course of
nature, cannot be fulfilled, as, for instance, if one says: 'Do
you promise to give if I. touch the sky with my finger?' But if the
stipulation runs: 'Do you promise to give if I do not touch the sky with
my finger?' it is considered unconditional, and accordingly can be sued
upon at once.

12 Again, a verbal obligation made between persons who are not present
with one another is void. This rule, however, afforded contentious
persons opportunities of litigation, by alleging, after some interval,
that they, or their adversaries, had not been present on the occasion in
question; and we have therefore issued a constitution, addressed to the
advocates of Caesarea, in order with the more dispatch to settle such
disputes, whereby it is enacted that written documents in evidence of a
contract which recite the presence of the parties shall be taken to
be indisputabl