[27]
Disinheritance may be of two kinds. In the first
case it is for a completed crime: for example, the son
who is disinherited may be a ravisher or an adulterer:
in the second case it is for a crime which is still incomplete and terminable1; an instance of this will
be the case where the son is disinherited because of
disobedience to his father. The first form of disinheritance always demands a certain harshness when
the father pleads his case, since the act is irrevocable,
whereas in the latter his pleading will be of a kindly
and almost persuasive nature, since he would prefer
not to disinherit him. On the other hand, the
pleading of the sons should in both cases be of a
subdued character and couched in a conciliatory
tone.
1 Literally conditional. The sense, however, is that the disinheritance is only conditional on the disobedience being continued.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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