Excerpt from Lectures on the Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities In the six lectures contained in the present volume I have attempted, as briefly as possible, to compare the early ideas of several nations as to crimes and their punishments. I have selected legal systems as far apart from, ans as much independent of, each other as possible, with a view to showing that identity of usage did not arise from the adoption by one nation of the laws of institutions of another, but rather from the inherent principles of human nature. The close similarity between the early institutions of very distant races as regards Penal Law is extremely remarkable. Nothing illustrates so much the complete contrast between modern and ancient ideas, on legal subjects, as the study of this branch of Law historically. The existence of Law, without any Sovereign authority - without any sanction, or recognized tribunal seems to us almost a contradiction in terms. 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.