This natural inheritance has been protected by
the legislators of every climate and age, and the father is encouraged
to persevere in slow and distant improvements, by the tender hope that a
long posterity will enjoy the fruits of his labor. The _principle_ of
hereditary succession is universal; but the _order_ has been variously
established by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of national
institutions, or by some partial example which was originally decided by
fraud or violence. The jurisprudence of the Romans appears to have
deviated from the equality of nature much less than the Jewish, the
Athenian, or the English institutions. On the death of a citizen all his
descendants, unless they were already freed from his paternal power,
were called to the inheritance of his possessions. The insolent
prerogative of primogeniture was unknown; the two sexes were placed on a
just level; all the sons and daughters were entitled to an equal portion
of the patrimonial estate; and if any of the sons had been intercepted
by a premature death, his person was represented and his share was
divided by his surviving children.
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