It is only because of the possibility, which I would suggest, of the first meaning of the active voice of this verb being different from what is generally supposed, and more in accordance with the first meaning of vóμos, that I dwell for a moment more upon véμw. The root of the word appears to have acquired a pastoral character or association, with the Graeco-Italian race. If, then, we can conceive an original notion, of occupation for pasturage, connecting with itself the idea of apportioning different plots to different stock, or of dividing out the stock itself, most of the derivative meanings may, I think, be traced without insuperable difficulty to these two. In any case the original meaning of vóμos = use or custom, is undoubted.

Conclusion. It may be observed from a previous quotation (note 57) that the Athenians of 400 B.C. attributed copoí to the semi-mythical Draco, vóμor to the historical Solon. Both words had then passed into the sense of statute, but

66 See Curtius' explanation of nemus 1. c. It is also at least questionable whether the peaceful Numa and Numitor were in the original legend legislators (see Corssen Ausspr. 1. 440) and not rather shepherd-kings as opposed to warriors.

the apportionment of the pair shews the higher antiquity attributed to the θεσμοί, which we may assume for the θέμισ τες θέμις. Tes and still more for the original Oéus. By the Greeks the ordinance of Heaven (éμis) was conceived to come first, then the declaration of that ordinance by men, whether as injunctions, judgements, or rules of law, in all of which senses the word éμioтes occurs. It is through the word which expresses declaration confined to the sense of judgement (Sikn), that we first come to the notion of abstract justice: but it is a third word, originally meaning simply custom or what is used, which survives the others as the general name (vóμos) of law.

CHAPTER V.

EARLY NAMES OF LAW: TEUTONIC.

Moeso-Gothic. Witoth. Under the heading of unconscious definition, it is naturally of special interest to us to enquire into the first conception of law, as it appears in the language of our own ancestors on the English side. I must glance, in beginning, at the most primitive1 specimen of the group to which that language belongs-the MoesoGothic of the Bible of Ulphilas. In the fragments of this work we have an invaluable record of the speech of a Teutonic people, belonging to the Low German branch, in the fourth century after Christ; with a key, in the Greek from which Ulphilas translated.

The Greek word vópos in the New Testament is rendered in Gothic by the word witoth, which is unlike the

1 The antiquity, as well as the interest, of the "Malberg " glosses in the Lex Salica is doubtless very great; but I scarcely consider either their date or their interpretation so certain as to justify me in quoting those most difficult words.

2 Bosworth (Gospels, pp. iii and vii) considers Ulphilas' translation to have been made before 360 A.D. and the Codex Argenteus to have been written rather more than 200 years later.

I have had much difficulty in deciding what spelling to adopt in my quotations. In Gothic, Bosworth's Y and W appeared better, for English readers, than Massmann's J and V. On the same ground I have preferred Massmann's TH to Bosworth's 'thorn,' writing of course W for its 'Anglosaxon' or Old English equivalent. The accent I have omitted, mainly to avoid typical errors.

reproduction of πроþýτas (praufetuns)—an indigenous form, and therefore a representation of what the Goths then understood by law3. The word is a past participle passive, in the singular number, from witan, in the sense in which this verb makes its past tense witaida, i.e. to watch, observe1.

6

Fortunately, we have a passage shewing that the same verb bore the metaphorical, as well as the physical, meaning of our observe". Witoth therefore means that which is observed or kept a meaning not very far removed from that which I have attributed to vóμos, but possibly, unlike vóμos, implying some idea of institution ab extra, which the simple what is used does not imply".

Drauhti-witoth (Thν кaλǹν σтpareíav, 1 Tim. 1. 18) is not an easy expression, but perhaps means the fight-laws, i.e. the proper rules of fight (Massmann tr. Kriegs-gesetz, Kriegs-dienst).

4 Mark 3. 2,

Gk. καὶ παρετήρουν αὐτόν.

Goth. Yah witaidedun imma.

I need scarcely mention the original root WID (=look, see) which occurs in almost all the Aryan languages (Curtius, p. 241, § 282).

5 John 9. 16,

Gk. ὅτι τὸ σάββατον οὐ τηρεῖ. thande sabbate daga ni witaith.

6 Not that which is known, which would be gawits (not in Ulphilas but of. unwits, Mark 7. 18, with German gewiss). The Veda or 'holy-writ' of Sanskrit comes from the same root, perhaps from the same branch-meaning of observance.

7 If we take vópos what is taken or used we cannot make it, at the same time, what is assigned. The cumulative employment of different explana tions is out of place in any fair etymology.

This meaning of keeping or observing, for witan, is perfectly reconcileable with that of guarding or maintaining, which has apparently led to that of to decree, ordain, borne by a cognate verb witian in Anglo-Saxon, from which comes A. S. witod, decreed or fated. But this last does not appear to be used for law, and cannot therefore reflect any doubt upon the meaning of the older Gothic word as above established.

Early English laws. The bodies of Early English, or "Anglo-Saxon," law which have come down to us are of great interest: not so much as forming part of our present law (into which there is reason to believe that they enter only in a very small degree), but because they preserve terms throwing light upon the origin and first conceptions of law in general.

It is true that so independent a growth as that of the Gothic sentiment on this subject can scarcely be expected at least two centuries and a half later. Besides other ele

ments of foreign influence, it is in particular not improbable that the English ideas of law were to some extent influenced by those of the Franks, and these in their turn by the latest forms of Roman imperial legislation.

In accordance with what has just been said, we shall be prepared to find, in the brief accounts prefixed to or inserted in the Anglo-Saxon laws, a somewhat direct attribution of legislation to the king, although the concurrence

8 Grein Bibliothek 2. 376. Rätsel 16. 11, him bith death witod. Where, in other Teutonic dialects, witat appears to be law, the history of the meaning is presumably the same as that of witoth, the kept or observed. In Otfrid's Harmony of the Gospels (9th century Alsatian) law is wizod.

9 See also Kemble's Saxons in England, bk. 2, ch. 1, 'Growth of the kingly power.' Spence (Equitable Jurisdiction, Vol. I. Bk. 1. ch. 3) traces an influence of Roman law in general, directly through the Anglo-Saxon clergy.