an act by which any one takes another into his family, owns him for his son, and appoints him for his heir.

The custom of adoption was very common among the ancient Greeks and Romans; yet it was not practised, but for certain causes expressed in the laws, and with certain formalities usual in such cases. It was a sort of imitation of nature, intended for the comfort of those who had no children: wherefore he that was to adopt was to have no children of his own, and to be past the age of getting any; nor were eunuchs allowed to adopt, as being under an actual impotency of begetting children; neither was it lawful for a young man to adopt an elder, because that would have been contrary to the order of nature; nay, it was even required that the person who adopted should be eighteen years older than his adopted son, that there might at least appear a probability of his being the natural father.

Among the Greeks it was called ἐγγένεια, filiation. It was allowed to such as had no issue of their own; excepting those who were not ἑαυτῶν ἐκτάσει, their own masters, e. g. slaves, women, madmen, infants, or persons under twenty years of age; who being incapable of making wills, or managing their own estates, were not allowed to adopt heirs to them. Foreigners being incapable of inheriting at Athens, if any such were adopted, it was necessary first to make them free of the city. The ceremony of adoption being over, the adopted had his name enrolled in the tribe and ward of his new father; for which entry a peculiar time was allotted, viz. the festival ἡμέραις. To prevent rash and inconsiderate adoptions, the Lacedemonians had a law, that adoptions should be transacted, or at least confirmed, in the presence of their kings. The children adopted were invested with all the privileges, and obliged to perform all the duties, of natural children; and being thus provided for in another family, ceased to have any claim of inheritance, or kindred, in the family which they had left, unless they first renounced their adoption; which, by the laws of Solon, they were not allowed to do, unless they had first begotten children, to bear the name of the person who had adopted them: thus providing against the ruin of families, which would otherwise have been extinguished by the desertion of those who had been adopted to preserve them. If the children adopted happened to die without children, the inheritance could not be alienated from the family into which they had been adopted, but returned to the relations of the adopter. It should seem, that by the Athenian law, a person, after having adopted another, was not allowed to marry without permission from the magistrate: in effect, there are instances of persons, who being ill used by their adoptive children, petitioned for such leave. However this be, it is certain some men married after they had adopted sons: in which case, if they begat legitimate children, their estates were equally shared between the begotten and adopted.

The Romans had two forms of adoption; one before ADO

Adoption. fore the praetor; the other at an assembly of the people, in the times of the commonwealth, and afterwards by a rescript of the emperor. In the former, the natural father addressed himself to the praetor, declaring that he emancipated his son, resigned all his authority over him, and consented he should be translated into the family of the adopter. The latter was practised, where the party to be adopted was already free; and this was called adrogation. The person adopted changed all his names; assuming the prename, name, and surname, of the persons who adopted him.

Besides the formalities prescribed by the Roman law, various other methods have taken place; which have given denominations to different species of adoption, among the Gothic nations, in different ages. As,

Adoption by arms, was when a prince made a present of arms to a person, in consideration of his merit and valour. Thus it was that the king of the Heruli was adopted by Theodoric; Athalaric by the emperor Justinian; and Cosroes, nephew of the king of Persia, by the emperor Justin.—The obligation here laid on the adoptive son was, to protect and defend the father from injuries, affronts, &c. And hence, according to Selden, the ceremony of dubbing knights took its origin as well as name.

Adoption by baptism, is that spiritual affinity which is contracted by god-fathers and god-children in the ceremony of baptism. This kind of adoption was introduced into the Greek church, and came afterwards into use among the ancient Franks, as appears by the Capitulars of Charlemagne.

In reality, the god-father was so far considered as adoptive father, that his god-children were supposed to be entitled to a share in the inheritance of his estate.

Adoption by hair, was performed by cutting off the hair of a person, and giving it to the adoptive father. It was thus that Pope John VIII. adopted Boson king of Arles; which, perhaps, is the only instance in history of adoption, in the order of the ecclesiastics; a law that professes to imitate nature, not daring to give children to those in whom it would be thought a crime to beget any.

Adoption by matrimony, is the taking the children of a wife or husband, by a former marriage, into the condition of proper or natural children; and admitting them to inherit on the same footing with those of the present marriage. This is a practice peculiar to the Germans: among whom, it is more particularly known by the name of einkindschaft; among their writers in Latin, by that of unio prolim, or union of issues. But the more accurate writers observe, that this is no adoption. See Adffiliation.

Adoption by testament, that performed by appointing a person heir by will, on condition of his assuming the name, arms, &c. of the adopter. Of which kind we meet with several instances in the Roman history.

Among the Turks, the ceremony of adoption is performed by obliging the person adopted to pass through the shirt of the adopter. Hence, among that people, to adopt, is expressed by the phrase, to draw another through my shirt. It is said, that something like this has also been observed among the Hebrews; where the prophet Elijah adopted Elisha for his son and successor, and communicated to him the gift of prophecy, by letting fall his cloak or mantle on him. But adoption, properly so called, does not appear to have been practised among the ancient Jews: Moses says nothing of it in his laws; and Jacob's adoption of his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, is not so properly an adoption, as a kind of substitution, whereby those two sons of Joseph were allotted an equal portion in Israel with his own sons.

Adoption is also used, in Theology, for a federal act of God's free grace; whereby those who are regenerated by faith, are admitted into his household, and entitled to a share in the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.

Adoption is sometimes also used, in speaking of the ancient clergy, who had a custom of taking a maid or widow into their houses, under the denomination of an adoptive or spiritual sister or niece.

Adoption is also used in speaking of the admission of persons into certain hospitals, particularly that of Lyons, the administrators whereof have all the power and rights of parents over the children admitted.

Adoption is also used for the reception of a new academy into the body of an old one.—Thus

The French academy of Marseilles was adopted by that of Paris: on which account, we find a volume of speeches extant, made by several members of the academy of Marseilles, deputed to return thanks to that of Paris for the honour.

In a similar sense, adoption is also applied by the Greeks, to the admitting a monk, or brother, into a monastic community; sometimes called spiritual adoption.