“And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die; but God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.”
“Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
“And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.”
In the 48th and 49th chapters of Genesis are these words of the dying Patriarch; and here is found not only the disposition of a “portion” to Joseph, but the character of each son is shown, the virtue or fault of each is described, to each a symbolic emblem is assigned, and to each a future is prophesied.
Here is a will, in fact, and in prophecy.
Will of Telemachus
Homer cites this will, made in favor of Piræus, to whom Telemachus bequeaths all the presents that had been made to him by Menelaus, lest they fall into the hands of his enemies; but he adds, “In case I should slay them and survive, you are then to restore them to me in my palace, a task as joyous to you to accomplish as to myself to profit by.” Perhaps, however, this may be objected to as proceeding from fabulous history. In Biblical tradition, however, we find very early evidence of oral bequests.
Will of Eudamidas
To Lucian we are indebted for the noble, touching, and certainly eccentric will of Eudamidas of Corinth.
This philosophical individual, who was extremely poor, was on terms of close and intimate friendship—friendship in the full and true acceptation of the term—with Arethæus and Charixenes of Sycion. Finding himself on his deathbed, he made a will, which, while exciting only the ridicule of the thoughtless or the worldly-wise, calls for respect and admiration in the breasts of those who know the value of real cordiality, and can appreciate his simple confidence in its sincerity.