TAB 



The twelve tables were committed to the memory of tlie 

 yoiHig, and the meditation of the old ; they were tranfcribcd 

 and illuilrated with learned diligence ; they had efcaped the 

 flames of the Gauls, they fubfiiled in the age of .luilinian, 

 and their fubfcqueut lofs has been imperfeftly rellored by 

 the labours of modern critics. 



It is a great pity this fyftem of law (hould have perilhed 

 through the injuries of time : we have now nothing of it, 

 but a few fragments difperfed in divers authors. J. Go- 

 throfed has coUeded them together, and we liave them in 

 Rofinus> and fome other authors. The Latin is very old 

 and baibarous, and remarkably obfcure. See Civil Law. 



Although thefe venerable monuments of antiquity were 

 confidercd as the rule of right and the founiain of juftice, 

 tJiey were overwhelmed by the weight and variety of new 

 laws, which, at the end of five centuries, became a grievance 

 more intolerable than tlie vices of the city. 



The laws of the twelve tables have been juftly charged 

 with inexcufable feverity. They are written, fays Mr. 

 Gibbon, like the ftatutes of Draco, in charafters of blood. 

 They approve the inhuman and unequal principle of retalia- 

 tion ; and tlie forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a 

 tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigoroufly exaftcd, imlcfs the 

 offender can redeem his freedom by a fine of 300 lbs. of 

 copper. Befides the flighter chaftifements of flageHation 

 and fervitude very liberally diftributed by the decemvirs, 

 nine crimes of a very different complexion are adjudged 

 worthy of death: vl%. i. Any aft of treafon againft the 

 ilate, or of correfpondence with the public enemy ; 2. Noc- 

 turnal meetings in the city, under any pretence of pleafure, 

 or religion, or the pubhc good ; 3. The murder of a citizen ; 

 4. The malice of an incendiary ; 5. Judicial perjury ; 6. The 

 corruption of a judge, who accepted bribes to pronounce an 

 iniquitous fentence ; 7. Libels or fatires ; 8. The nofturnal 

 mifchief of damaging or deftroying a neighbour's corn ; 

 9. Magical incantations. The cruelty of the twelve tables 

 againft infolvent debtors merits pecuhar notice. After the 

 judicial proof or confeflion of the debt, 30 days of grace 

 were allowed before a Roman was delivered into tlie power 

 of his fellow-citizen. In this private prifon, 1 2 ounces of 

 rice were his daily food : he might be bound with a chain 

 of 15 pounds' weight ; and his mifery was thrice expofed in 

 the market-place, to folicit the compaffion of his friends and 

 countrymen. At the expiration of 60 days, the debt was 

 difcharged by the lofs of liberty or hfe : the infolvent debtor 

 was either put to death, or fold in foreign flavery beyond 

 the Tyber ; but if feveral creditors were alike obftinate and 

 unrelenting, tliey might legally difmember his body, amd 

 fatiate their revenge by this horrid partition. 



When the manners of Rome were infenfibly poli(hed, the 

 criminal code of the decemvirs was aboliflied by the hu- 

 manity of accufers, witneffes, and judges ; and impunity 

 became the confequence of immoderate rigour. The Por- 

 cian and Valerian laws prohibited the magiftrates from in- 

 llifting on a free citizen any capital, or even corporal 

 punifhment ; and the obfolete ftatutes of blood were artfuUy, 

 and perhaps truly, afcribed to the fpirit, not of patrician, 

 ' but of civil, tyranny. Gibbon's Decl. and Fall, &c. 

 vol. viii. 



Tables of the Law, in Scripture Hifiory. See Deca- 

 logue. 



Tables, New, Tabulit Novd, an edift occafionally pub- 

 lifhed in the Roman commonwealth, for the abolifhing all 

 kinds of debts, and annulling all obligations. 



It was thus called, in regard that all anteotdent afts 

 being deftroyed, there were nothing but new ones to take 

 place. 



TAB 



Table, among Jewellers. A table diamond, or other pre- 

 cious ftone, is that whofe upper furface is quite flat, and 

 only the fides cut in angles : in which fenfe, a diamond cut 

 table-wife, is ufed in oppofition to a rofe-diamond. See 

 Diamond. 



Table, in the Glafi-Manufaflure, denotes a circular fhcet 

 of finilhed window-glafs. 1 hefe tables are generally four 

 feet in diameter, and each of them weighs 10, 10^, or i i 

 pounds. Twelve of thefe is called zfide or a crate of glafs. 

 Some tables of glafs have been four, and even five feet in 

 diameter. Such have been made by MelTrs. Attwood and 

 Smith, formerly Hammond and Smith, of Gatefhead, in 

 tlie county of Durham ; and thefe tables are the more valua- 

 ble, as they yield larger fquares than ever were made, except 

 in plate-glafs, and die quality alfo is of the bcft kind. The 

 centre of the table of glafs, where the punting iron was at- 

 tached, is of coiu-fe fomewhat tiiicker, and is denominated 

 by the workmen " bull's eye :" nevcrthelefs, the reft of the 

 plate is of an uniform tliicknefs. 



Table is alfo ufed for an index, or repertory, put at the 

 beginning or end of a book, to direft the reader to any paf- 

 fage he may have occafion for. 



Thus we may fay, table of matters ; table of authors quoted; 

 table of chapters. Sec. Tables, of themfelves, fometimes 

 make large volumes, as that of Dravitz on the civil and 

 canon laws. 



Tables of the Bible, are called Concordances. See Cox- 



CORDANCE. 



TA^LE-Rents:. See Bord-lands. 



Tables of ffoufes, among /tflrologers, are certain tables, 

 readily drawn up, for tlie afliftanec of praftitioncrs in that 

 art, for tlie erefting or drawing of figures or fchemes. Ste 

 House. 



Tables, in Mathematics, are fyftem« of numbers, calcu- 

 lated to be ready at hand for expediting aftronomical, geome- 

 trical, and other operations. See Canon. 



Tables, Aflronomical, are computations of the motions, 

 places, and other phenomena of the planets, both primary 

 and fecondary. See each planet. 



The oldeft aftronomical tables are the Ptolemaic, found in 

 Ptolemy's Almageft ; but thefe now no longer agree with 

 the heavens. 



In 1252, Alphonfo XI. king of Caftile, undertook the 

 correftion of them, chiefly by the afliftance of Ifaac Ha- 

 zen, a Jew ; and fpent four hundred thoufand crowns there- 

 in. Thus arofe the Alphonfme tables, to which that prince 

 himfelf prefixed a preface. But the deficiency of thefe, 

 alfo, was foon perceived by Purbachius and Regiomon- 

 tanus ; upon which Regiomontanus, and after him Walthe- 

 rus and Warnenis, applied themfelves to celeftial obferva- 

 tions, for the farther amending of them ; but death pre- 

 vented any progrefs therein. 



Copernicus, in his books of the celeftial revolutions, in- 

 ftead of the Alphonfine tables, gives others of his own cal- 

 culation, from the latter, and partly from his own ob- 

 fervations. 



From Copernicus's obfervations and llieories, Eraf. Rein- 

 holdus afterwards compiled the Pruttnu tables, whicli liave 

 been printed feveral times, and in feveral places. 



Tycho de Brahc, even in his youth, became fenfible of 

 the deficiency of the Prutenic tables ; which was what deter- 

 mined him to apply himfelf, with fo much vigour, to celef- 

 tial obfervations : yet all he did, by tliem, was to adJTift the 

 motions of the fun and moon ; though Longomontanus, 

 from the fame, to tlie theories of the feveral planets pub- 

 lifhed in his " Aftronomia Danica," added tables of their 

 motions, now called the Dani/h tables ; and Kepler likewife, 



from 



