or LAST WILL. Testaments, both Justinian and Coke agree, are so called, because they are testatio mentis; an etymon which seems to savour too much of conceit, it being plainly a substantive derived from the verb testari, in like manner as juramentum, incrementum, and others, from other verbs. The definition of the old Roman lawyers is much better than their etymology: "voluntatis nostrae justa sententia de eo, quod quis post mortem suam fieri velit;" which may be thus rendered into English: "the legal declaration of a man's intentions, which he wills to be performed after his death." It is called sententia, to denote the circumspection and prudence with which it is supposed to be made; it is "voluntatis nostrae sententia," because its efficacy depends on its declaring the testator's intention, whence in English it is emphatically styled his will; it is justa sententia, that is, drawn, attested, and published, with all due solemnities and forms of law; it is "de eo, quod quis post mortem suam fieri velit," because a testament is of no force till after the death of the testator. Testaments are divided into two kinds; written, and verbal or nuncupative; of which the former is committed to writing; the latter depends merely upon oral evidence, being declared by the testator in extremis, before a sufficient number of witnesses, and afterwards reduced to writing.