Superstition and Force Essays on the Wager of Law the Wager of Battle the Ordeal the Torture (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law the Wager of Battle the Ordeal the Torture The history of jurisprudence is the history of civiliza tion. The labors of the lawgiver embody not only the manners and customs of his time, but also its innermost thoughts and beliefs, laid bare for our examination with a frankness that admits of no concealment. These afford the surest outlines for a trustworthy picture of the past, of which the details are supplied by the records of the chronicler. It is from these sources that I have attempted, in the present work, a brief investigation into the group of laws and customs through which our forefathers sought to dis cover hidden truth when disputed between man and man. Not only do these throw light upon the progress of human development from primitive savagism to civilized enlightenment, but they reveal to us some of the strangest mysteries of the human mind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.