nd subsequent
language of the will, the real meaning which is being sought may
be made evident. So that if all the words, or most of them, were
considered separately by themselves, they would appear of doubtful
meaning. But as for those which can be made intelligible by a
consideration of the whole document, these have no business to be
thought obscure.

In the next place, it will be proper to draw one's conclusion as to
the intentions which were entertained by the writer from all his other
writings, and actions, and sayings, and his general disposition, and
from the usual tenor of his life; and to scrutinise that very document
in which this ambiguous phrase is contained which is the subject of
the present inquiry, all over, in all its parts, so as to see whether
there is anything opposite to that interpretation which we contend
for, or contrary to that which the adversary insists on adopting. For
it will be easy to consider what it is probable that the man who drew
up the document intended, from its whole tenor, and from the
character of the writer, and from those other circumstances which are
characteristic of the persons concerned. In the next place, it will
be desirable to show, if the facts of the case itself afford any
opportunity for doing so, that that meaning which the opposite party
contends for, is a much more inconvenient one to adopt than that which
we have assumed to be the proper one, because there is no possible
means of carrying out or complying with that other meaning; but what
we contend for can be accomplished with great ease and convenience.

As in this law (for there is no objection to citing an imaginary
one for the sake of giving an instance, in order to the more easy
comprehension of the matter):--"Let not a prostitute have a golden
crown. If such a case exists, it must be confiscated." Now, in
opposition to a man who contended that that was to become public
property in accordance with this law, it might be argued, "that there
could be no way of making a prostitute public property, and there is
no intelligible meaning for the law if that is what is to be adopted
as its proper construction; but as to the confiscation of anything
made of gold, the management and the result is easy, and there is no
difficulty in it."

XLI. And it will be desirable also to pay diligent attention to this
point, whether if that sense is sanctioned which the opposite party
contends for, any more advantageous, or ho