Though the common law is considered among us as in some measure opposite to the Roman, insomuch that these two laws divide the different territories, it is, notwithstanding, true that several regulations of the Roman law entered into our customs, especially when they made the new digests, at a time not very distant from ours, when this law was the principal study of those who were designed for civil employment, at a time when it was not usual for people to boast of not knowing what it was their duty to know, and of knowing what they ought not to know, at a time when a quickness of understanding was made more subservient to learning than pretending to a profession, and when a continual pursuit of amusements was not even the characteristic of women.
Nahiz eta gure artean ohiturazko zuzenbidea erromatar zuzenbidearen kontrakotzat hartu ohi den, hala non bi zuzenbideok lurraldeak bereizten baitituzte, egia da, hala ere, erromatar zuzenbidearen hainbat xedapen gure ohituretan sartu zirela, batez ere idazketa berriak egin zirenean, hain urruti ere ez ditugun garaietan: zuzenbide hori enplegu zibiletan aritzen ziren guztiek ezagutzen zuten garaietan; jakin behar dena ez jakiteaz eta jakin behar ez dena jakiteaz harrotzen ez ziren garaietan; jeinu azkarrak, lanbidean jarduteko baino gehiago, lanbidea ikasteko balio zuen garaian; eta dibertsio etengabeak ezta emakumeen kontua ere ez ziren garaian.