Greek Probate Law will," however, and die intestate, but when we adopt, it isprobably not the motive of the individual nor the policy of the law to make an heir of the adopted so much as to provide fathers and mo thers for orphans and homeless children. In this twentieth century after Christ the will is the common instrument which we deliberately employ for the purpose of instituting heirs, but the ancient Greek had recourse, as a rule, to the fiction of adoption to effect that very object, though enough instances pf the use of the last will and testament occur in the cases from the Orators to show an established practice. From the day those priestly epigrammakers, the old Sanskrit philosophers, formulated that terribly clever dictum—• "One of two things is true, either the man will leave the money or the money will leave the man" — anxious care for the disposition of worldly goods has had a controlling power in the heart of man kind. And though caste system and clan rights may have postponed its actual operation, the Last Will and Testament — even if sometimes in an embryonic stage — is in the mind of man almost at the very dawn, of legal history. At least from the time of the Athenian lawgiver Solon, the will was a legally approved means of instituting an heir, as is evidenced by the law in various cases, notably in the Second Ora tion against Stephanos,4 where the ora tor Demosthenes held retainer as speech writer for the sons of the noted banker Pasion, who was the J. Pierpont Mor gan of his times. The old law therein quoted represents that "any citizen (with the exception of such as had been adopted when Solon became Archon) shall be at liberty to dispose of his own property by will, as he pleases, if he has no male children lawfully born; unless 'Demosthenes, Or. 46 a. 1133.
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his mind is impaired by lunacy or dotage, or by drugs or disease, or unless he is under influence of a woman or some illegal motive, or under constraint or durance." This old law dating back to at least 600 B.C., with its detailed sug gestions — and maybe invitations — for attacking a will, shows on its face that legal acumen and conserving of the family estate by will were by no means in their infancy. Although a will is simply the legal expression of the testator's intention and no involved dissertation is called for here, a few extracts from the old Hellenic will, together with brief refer ence to some suggestive testamentary customs, may present a birdseye view of this phase of our subject sufficiently comprehensive for the present purpose. In any bequests under the old Greek will the great purchasing power of money must be taken into the reckoning, for ready money was scarce and it bought from ten to twenty times more than the same amount would to-day with us, vary ing, of course, with the period and the state of the commonwealth. In Lysias6 it appears that a too liberal allowance in the guardian's account for the support of two boys, their sister, a man attend ant and a maid servant was 1000 drach mae ($180) a year, or a little less than fifty-four cents a day for the whole com pany. Even when prices were higher, Demosthenes (while a minor), with his mother and sister and their necessary slaves, had an annual allowance of seven minae ($126), with the house in which they lived.6 These were the families of rich Athenians and the allowances per capita are estimated to be fully two sevenths higher in the lower rating than ordinary adults could live on in comfort. Ordinary interest in ordinary times had 'Oration 32. s. 28. •Demosthenes, Or. 27, s. 36.
