The Roman Law of To-day
only oasis in which fresh water flowed. But despotism is like the simoon’s breath, which allows no plant to grow; and private law alone not being able to maintain a spirit which was despised everywhere, was obliged to succumb, although latest of all, to the spirit of the new era. This spirit of the new era presents itself to us under a very strange appearance. We might expect to find in it the marks of despotism, severity, harshness, want of consideration, and yet we find the very opposite—mildness and humanity. But this mildness itself is a despotic mildness, that is, it robs one person of what it gives another—it is the mildness of arbitrariness and caprice, not that of humanity—it is the penalty of cruelty. This is not the place to give all the proofs on which I might base this assertion. It will be sufficient, it seems to me, to call attention to one especially significant trait of that character, one which is rich in historical material—the moderation and consideration shown to the debtor at the expense of the creditor. It may, I think, be laid down
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