To every Roman citizen he gives,-- To every several man,--seventy-five drachmas. His private arbours, and new-planted orchards, On this side Tiber: he hath left them you, And to your heirs for ever;---- then the mob changes note, and with one voice shouts, “To Brutus, to Cassius;--burn all!” Testamenta hominum speculum esse morum vulgo creditur.--Plin. jun., 8 Ess. 18. So they are! They are the last touch of the brush in the great picture of civilisation, manners, and customs, lightening it up. Would that space permitted me to enter into the history of wills: a few curious particulars alone can we admit. To die without having made a will was formerly regarded with horror. A very common custom in the Middle Ages was that of leaving considerable benefactions to the Church. This was well enough, but the clergy were not satisfied until it was made compulsory. Ducange says that neglect of leaving to the Church indicated a profanity which deserved punishment by a refusal of the rites of the last sacraments and burial. The clergy of Brittany, in the fourteenth century, claimed a third of the household goods; the death-bed became ecclesiastical property in the diocese of Auxerre; and Clement V. settled the claims of the Church by deciding that the parish priest might take as his perquisite a ninth of all the movables in the house of the dead man, after the debts of the deceased had been paid off. A sufficiency of historical notes. I will proceed at once--perhaps somewhat strangely--to give the reader a specimen of a will coming decidedly under the heading of this article. It is that of a _Pig_. The will is ancient enough. S. Jerome, in his “Proœmium on Isaiah,” speaks of it, saying, that in his time (fourth century) children were wont to sing it at school, amidst shouts of laughter. Alexander Brassicanus, who died in 1539, was the first to publish it; he found it in a MS. at Mayence. Later, G. Fabricius gave a corrected edition of it from another MS. found at Memel, and, since then, it has been in the hands of the learned. The original is in Latin; I translate, modifying slightly one expression and omitting one bequest: I, M. Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus, have made my testament, which, as I can’t write myself, I have dictated. Says Magirus, the cook: “Come along, thou who turnest the house topsy-turvy, spoiler of the pavement, O fugitive Porcellus! I am resolved to slaughter thee to-day.” Says Corocotta Porcellus: “If ever I have done thee any wrong, if I have sinned in any way, if I have smashed any wee pots with my feet; O Master Cook, grant pardon to thy suppliant!” Says the cook Magirus: “Halloo, boy! go, bring me a carving-knife out of the kitchen, that I may make a bloody Porcellus of him.”