t or his affection; his arbitrary displeasure chastised an unworthy
son by the loss of his inheritance, and the mortifying preference of a
stranger. But the experience of unnatural parents recommended some
limitations of their testamentary powers. A son or, by the laws of
Justinian, even a daughter, could no longer be disinherited by their
silence; they were compelled to name the criminal and to specify the
offence; and the justice of the Emperor enumerated the sole causes that
could justify such a violation of the first principles of nature and
society. Unless a legitimate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved
for the children, they were entitled to institute an action or complaint
of _inofficious_ testament; to suppose that their father's understanding
was impaired by sickness or age, and respectfully to appeal from his
rigorous sentence to the deliberate wisdom of the magistrate.

In the Roman jurisprudence an essential distinction was admitted between
the inheritance and the legacies. The heirs who succeeded to the entire
unity, or to any of the twelve fractions of the substance of the
testator, represented his civil and religious character, asserted his
rights, fulfilled his obligations, and discharged the gifts of
friendship or liberality, which his last will had bequeathed under the
name of legacies. But as the imprudence or prodigality of a dying man
might exhaust the inheritance and leave only risk and labor to his
successor, he was empowered to retain the Falcidian portion; to deduct,
before the payment of the legacies, a clear fourth for his own
emolument. A reasonable time was allowed to examine the proportion
between the debts and the estate, to decide whether he should accept or
refuse the testament; and if he used the benefit of an inventory, the
demands of the creditors could not exceed the valuation of the effects.
The last will of a citizen might be altered during his life or rescinded
after his death; the persons whom he named might die before him, or
reject the inheritance, or be exposed to some legal disqualification. In
the contemplation of these events he was permitted to substitute second
and third heirs, to replace each other according to the order of the
testament; and the incapacity of a madman or an infant to bequeath his
property might be supplied by a similar substitution. But the power of
the testator expired with the acceptance of the testament; each Roman of
mature age and discretion