TAB 



(hew it widi great folemnity. He adds, that the names of 

 a great number of kniglits, written around it, feemed to 

 contii;m the truth of the tradition. 



Larrey alfo, and feveral other authors, make no fcruple 

 to relate this fable of knighthood as matter of hiftory : but 

 that it is a fable, is certain ; F. Papebroch having (hewn, 

 that there was no liuch thing as an order of knights before 

 the fixth century. 



Camden alfo obferves, that tiie table at Winchefter is of a 

 ■ ftrufture much more modem than the fixth century. It is 

 to be added, that Arthur himfelf is elleemed by many no 

 more than a fabulous prince. 



An excellent hiftorian obferves, that Arthur was un- 

 doubtedty a great general, though his adions have given oc- 

 cafion to innumerable fables ; and though the inflitution of 

 the " Knights of the Round Table" has ferved as a found- 

 ation for many fabulous relations, it is not to be deemed al- 

 together chimerical. For where is tlie improbability that 

 Arthur fhould inftitute an order of knighthood in Britain, 

 when we learn from the letters of CalTiodorus, that Theo- 

 doric, king of the Oftrogoths, inftituted one in Italy in the 

 fame century. Rapin's Hift. of Eng. vol. i. p. 39. fol. 



However, others have fuppofed that the round table was 

 not any military order, but rather a kind of juft, or military 

 exercil^, between two perfons armed with lances. Several 

 authors fay that Arthur, duke of Bretagne, renewed it. 

 See Matthew Paris, the abbot Juftiniani, and F. Helyot. 



Paulus Jovius fays, it was under the empire of Frederic 

 BarbarofTa that the knights of the Round Table (trft began 

 to be talked of ; others attribute their origin to the faftions 

 of the Guelphs and Gibellins. King Edward I. built a 

 houfe called the Round Table, the court of which was two 

 hundred feet in diameter. Du-Cange GlofF. Tabula. 



Table, in Arch'iteaure, a fmooth, fimple member, or or- 

 nament, of various forms, but moft ufually in that of a long 

 fquare. See Platb.\nd. 



Table, PrqjeSing, is fuch 3 one as (lands out from the 

 naked of the wall, pedeftal, or other matter which it adorns. 

 T,\BLE, Raked. See Raking-To^/c. 

 Table, Razed, an embofTment in a frontifpiece, for the 

 putting an infcription, or other ornament, in fculpture. 

 This is what M. Perrault underftands by abacus in Vi- 

 truvius. 



Table, Crowned, that covered with a corniche, and in 

 which is cut a bafTo-relievo, or a piece of black marble in- 

 cruftated, for an infcription. 



Table, Rujl'tcated, that which is picked, and whofe fur- 

 face feems rough, as in grottos, &c. See Rustics. 

 Table, Water. See WAXER-TaWf. 

 Table, Plain, a furveying inftrument. See Plain 

 Table. 



Table, in PerfpeB'ive, denotes a plain furface, fuppofed 

 to be tranfparent, and perpendicular to the horizon. 



It is always imagined to be placed at a certain diflance 

 between the eye and objefts, for the objefts to be repre- 

 fented thereon by means of vifual rays palling from every 

 point thereof, through the table to the eye. 



Whence it is alfo called per/peaive plane. See Per- 

 spective. 



Table, in Anatomy. The cranium is faid to be com- 

 pofed of two tables, or laminae ; l. e. it is double, as if it 

 confifted of two bones laid one over another. See Skull. 



Table of Pythagoras, called alfo multiplication-table, is a 

 fquare formed of an hundred or more lefTer fquares, or cells, 

 containing the produfts of the feveral digits, or fimple num- 

 bers, multiphed by each other. See this table under Mul- 

 tiplication. 4 



TAB 



Tajles, Laws of the Twelve, were tbe firft fet of laws 

 of the Romans ; tnus called, either becaufe the Romans 

 then wrote with a ftyle on thin wooden tables, covered with 

 wax ; or, rather, becaufe they were engraved on tables, or 

 plates of copper, to be expofed in the moft noted part of the 

 public forum. Wood, brafs, or ivory, might be fuccef- 

 fively employed. 



After the expulfion of the kings, as the Romans were 

 then without any fixed or certain fyftem of law ; at leaft, 

 had none ample enough to take iu the various cafes that 

 might fall between particular perfons ; it was refolved to 

 adopt the beft and wifeft laws of the Greeks. 



One Hermodorus, to whom a ftatue was erefted in the 

 forum, was firft appointed to tranflate them ; and the de- 

 cemviri afterwards compiled and reduced them into ten 

 tables. After immenfe care and apphcation, they were, at 

 length, enafted and confirmed by the fenate, and an affembly 

 of the people, in the year of Rome 303. 



The following year they found fome things wanting 

 therein, which they fupplied from the laws of the former 

 kings of Rome, and from certain cuftoms, which long ufe 

 had authorized : all thefe, being engraven on two other 

 tables, made the law of the twelve tables, fo famous in the 

 Roman jurifprudence ; the fource and foundation of civil or 

 Roman law. See ClV'lL Law. 



The laws of the twelve tables were alfo called decemviral 

 laws, from the officers entrufted with the compofmg thecn. 

 See Decemviri. 



Thefe laws of the decemviri were diftated by the rigid 

 and jealous fpirit of an ariftocracy, which had yielded with 

 reluftance to the juft demands of the people. But the fub- 

 ftance of the twelve tables was adapted to the ftate of the 

 city ; and the Romans muft have emerged from barbarifm, 

 fince they were capable of ftudying and embracing the infti- 

 tutions of their more enlightened neighbours. Mr. Gibbon 

 fuggefts, that a motive of national pride induced Livy and 

 Dionyfius to believe, that deputies from Rome vifited 

 Athens uoder the mfe and fplendid adminiftration of Pe- 

 ricles, and that the laws of Solon were transfufed into the 

 twelve tables. If fuch an embafTy, fays the hiftorian of the 

 Roman empire, had indeed been received from the bar- 

 barians of Hefperia, the Roman name would have been 

 familiar to the Greeks before the reign of Alexander, and 

 the fainteft evidence would have been explored and cele- 

 brated by the curiofity of fucceeding times. But the 

 Athenian monuments are filent ; nor will it feem credible 

 that the patricians fhould undertake a long and perilous navi- 

 gation, to copy the pureft model of a democracy. In the 

 comparifon of the tables of Solon with thofe of the decem- 

 virs, fome copied refemblance may be found ; fome rules 

 which nature and reafon have revealed to every fociety ; fome 

 proofs of a common defcent from Egypt or Phoenicia. 

 But in all the great lines of pubhc and private jurifprudence, 

 the legiflators of Rome and Athens appear to be ftrangers 

 or adverfe to each other. 



Whatever, as the fame hiftorian proceeds, might be the 

 origin or the merit of the twelve tables, they obtained 

 among the Romans that bhnd and partial reverence which 

 the lawyers of every country dehght to beftow on their 

 municipal inftitutions. The ftudy is recommended by Cicero 

 as equaDy pleafant and inftrucSive. " How admirable," 

 fays the Roman orator, with honeft or alFefted prejudice, 

 " is the wifdom of our anceftors ! We alone are the matters 

 of civil prudence ; and our fuperiority is the more confpi- 

 cuous, if we deign to caft our eyes on the rude and al- 

 moft ridiculous jurifprudence of Dracon, of Solon, and of 

 Lycurgus." 



The 



