Thus, the State, as such, possesses an external power which finds its most direct expression--just as does the unity of the State--in the exercise of judicial authority on the part of the ruler. In the beginnings of legal development, however, law always possesses also a _religious sanction_. True, the above-mentioned unification of the offices of priest and judge or of the authority of priest and ruler--the latter of which sometimes occurs in connection with the former--may be the result of particular cultural conditions. This, however, but indicates all the more forcibly how permanent has been the religious sanction of law. Such a sanction is evidenced by the words and symbolisms that accompany legal procedure even in the case of secular judges and of the relations of individuals themselves. Not without significance, for example, is the solemnity manifested in the tones of those who are party to a barter, a contract, or an assignment of property. Indeed, their words are usually accompanied by express confirmations resembling the formulas of prayer and imprecation; the gods are invoked as witnesses of the transaction or as avengers of broken pledges. Because of the solemnity of the spoken word, speech was displaced but slowly by writing. Long after the latter art had been acquired, its use continued to be avoided, not only in the case of legal formulas, such as the above, but occasionally even in connection with more general legal declarations. In the Brahman schools of India, for example, the rules of legal procedure, as well as the hymns and prayers, were for centuries transmitted purely through memory; we are told, moreover, that in ancient Sparta it was forbidden to put the laws in writing. To an age, however, which is incapable of conceiving even a legal transaction except as a perceptual act, the spoken word by itself is inadequate to give the impression of reality. As an indication that he has acquired a piece of land, the purchaser lifts a bit of soil from the earth, or the vendor tosses a stalk of grain to him--a ceremony which is imitated in the case of other objects of exchange and which has led to the word 'stipulation' (from the Latin _stipulatio_, throwing of a stalk). Another symbol of acquisition is the laying on of the hand. Similar to it is the clasp of right hands as a sign of mutual agreement. By this act the contracting parties pledge their freedom in case they break the promise which they are giving. When the fact that the two parties lived at some distance from each other rendered the hand clasp impossible, the Germans were accustomed to exchange gloves. One who challenged another to a duel likewise did so by the use of a glove, even though his opponent was present. By throwing his glove before his opponent the challenger gave expression to the distance which separated him in feeling from his enemy. In this case, the symbol has changed from a sign of agreement to the opposite. All the symbols of which we have been speaking agree in having originally been regarded, not as symbols, but as real acts possessing certain magical potencies. When an individual, who is acquiring a piece of land, picks up a bit of soil while speaking the appropriate words, he intends to produce a magical effect upon the land, such that disaster will come to any one who may seek to deprive him of it. He who offers his hand in sealing a compact signifies that he is prepared to lose his freedom in case he fails to keep his word. For this reason the shaking of hands is sometimes supplemented by the extension of a staff--a special use of the magical wand which occurs particularly when the pledge is administered by a judge. In a second stage of development, the act loses the status of reality, but it remains associated with religious feelings. At a third stage, it becomes a mere matter of form, though the solemnity with which it envelops the transaction adds to the impressiveness of the latter and fixes it more firmly in memory.