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 perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex
created to please and obey was never supposed to have attained the age
of reason and experience. Such, at least, was the stern and haughty
spirit of the law, which had been insensibly mollified before the time
of Justinian.

II. The original right of property can only be justified by the accident
or merit of prior occupancy; and on this foundation it is wisely
established by the philosophy of the civilians. The savage who hollows a
tree, inserts a sharp stone into a wooden handle, or applies a string to
an elastic branch becomes in a state of nature the just proprietor of
the canoe, the bow, or the hatchet. The materials were common to all,
the new form, the produce of his time and simple industry, belong solely
to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, without a sense of their own
injustice, extort from the hunter the game of the forest overtaken or
slain by his personal strength and dexterity. If his provident care
preserves and multiplies the tame animals, whose nature is tractable to
the arts of education, he acquires a perpetual title to the use and
service of their numerous progeny, which derives its existence from him
alone. If he encloses and cultivates a field for their sustenance and
his