Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 10.djvu/349

THE PLEDGE-IDEA. 323 meanings, and from the same root (ttt^yw/xi) pangOy pag, pact-iim^ in the third meaning. In the Greek, the verb-stem ^er- (put) has all three meanings.^ It is not merely that the words for the three ideas were the same; it is much more than that; there was 07ily one idea for what we now distinguish as three. That is, the transactions which we now distinguish as pledge, forfeit, and prom- ise, were then not distinguished at all, and only differentiated them- selves later and gradually. We may get some slight notion of the unity by noticing how to-day we ourselves say, '* I pledge you my word," and " He pledged his watch " (thus using one word for the first and third notions) ; or, " I stake my honor upon it," and " He held the stakes " (thus using one word for the second and third notions) ; or how the Germans say " pfand " for the first notion, and " pfandspiel " for a game of forfeits. But of course with us the ideas are still different, though the words may coincide ; while with the primitive speaker the one root represented the same gen- eral notion. We can, however, describe the past only in terms of our own notions; and, in fixing on the idea which most nearly represents to us the essence of the primitive notion, we find the second one to be the chief and suggestive one, i. e. " bet," or, more closely, *' forfeit." The " forfeit" idea is the important one, because, first, out of it the other two seem to have developed, and, next, it brings out most clearly the contrast between the original and the modern idea of the transaction which we now call " pledge." The ** promise " idea developed by transferring the moral emphasis from the fact that the transaction was settled to the fact that it was only provisionally settled ; the " forfeit " itself was used as a mere form, and was subordinated in idea to that which it came to mark, i. e. the debtor's duty.^ feit " {vorvedja) preserves closely the ved and the ruette form, as does " bet " {pace the Century Dictionary) less clearly; while "wager" follows ie guas^ittm develop- ment. In Scotland, in the i6oo's, wed-setten was still the generic word for a mortgage ; Skene, De Verborum Significatione, s. v. Vadium (1641). Curiously enough, there is a similar coincidence in the verb used, which is usually a synonym of "put"; sactia in Gothic and Icelandic, setzen in German, ponere in Latin, rl^tiin in Greek, ire in Japanese. 1 See the references post, under Roman and Greek I>aw. 2 The connection of the wnditim with the promise idea is no part of the present subject ; but a reminder of the probable features of its development will perhaps make more clear the unity of the primitive root-notion. We may assume (though this has been disputed) that it is the infra-judicial wadium promise which was first recognized, and therefore is the process to be explained. This puts before us the case of a defend- ant against whom judgment is given by the assembly; he finds himself ordered to pay.