Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters

A collection of legal documents may be studied in a variety of ways. Perhaps the least productive plan is to ransack them for illustrations of a theory, or a particular point. When the theory is already well known, as in the case of Roman or mediæval law, such a procedure is justifiable, but when the theory has to be made out, it is well nigh inexcusable. Some valuable monographs have followed this method, but they can hardly expect to give permanent results.