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BY THOMAS, COOPER, ESQ.

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, AT CARLISLE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA.

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two,
BY JOHN S. VOORHIES,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

JAN 3 1935

PREFACE..

WHEN I first undertook to publish Justinian's Institutes (that I might not entirely renounce my accustomed studies) I contemplated nothing more than a re-publication of Harris's Edition, which has now become scarce; together with some additional notes, and a brief history of Roman Jurisprudence, by way of preface. On reading with attention Harris's Translation, I found the language so verbose, that I sat down to translate the first Book of the Institutes in my own way. It is true, my ear was better satisfied with my own performance; but I found so many co-incidences of expression, and so little room to improve the fidelity of Harris's Version, that I determined to adopt it as the ground-work of the present publication; and alter it no further, than to condense the expressions, where they seemed to me needlessly diffuse. By so doing, I have abridged it to the amount of about one-fifth of the whole, without sacrificing anything necessary to the sense. Some few periphrases I have retained, and some I have added, when the original seemed to require elucidation; but, upon the whole, my aim has been to render this a faithful translation, in as few words as possible. Perhaps I may be blamed for taking this liberty with Dr. Harris's work. Had it been a piece of poetry, I should have left it untouched; but meaning to give to the public as good a translation as I could furnish, I saw no reason why I should needlessly occupy the time of the reader, or increase the bulk of the book, by religiously retaining all its redundancies and imperfections.

I have inserted most of Harris's notes, citing him where I have done so; but they are few and meagre. I have generally consulted the paraphrase of Theophilus, the short comments to the Corpus Juris Civilis of Gothofred, the translations and notes of Ferriere, Wood's Institutes, and Taylor's Elements of the Civil Law. I would gladly have procured, if I could, more sources of information, and I have taken much pains for that purpose, but in vain. The want of books has not been the only difficulty I have met with. All the notes and references I had collected were consumed by fire on my road from Northumberland hither, last November. An accident afterwards deprived me of my eye-sight for about a week, and rendered exertion painful to me for a considerable time. I could ill spare these defalcations from the occasional leisure which my Chemical Lectures allowed me, but I have endeavored to make the best use of the opportunities that remained.

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