nourable, or necessary
object appears to have been omitted by the framer of the document in
question. That will be done if we can prove that the object which
we are attempting to prove is either honourable, or expedient, or
necessary; and if we can also assert that the interpretation which our
adversaries insist upon, is not at all entitled to such a character.
In the next place, if there is in the law itself any controversy
arising from any ambiguity, it will be requisite to take great care to
show that the meaning which our adversaries adopt is provided for in
some other law. But it will be very serviceable indeed to point out
how the testator would have expressed himself, if he had wished the
interpretation which the adversary puts upon his words to be carried
into execution or understood. As for instance, in this cause, the one,
I mean, in which the question is about the silver plate, the woman
might argue, "That there was no use in adding the words 'as may be
chosen,' if the matter was left to the selection of the heir; for if
no such words had been inserted, there could have been no doubt at all
that the heir might have given whatever he himself chose. So that it
was downright madness, if he wished to take precautions in favour of
his heir, to add words which might have been wholly left out without
such omission prejudicing his heir's welfare."

Wherefore, it will be exceedingly advisable to employ this species of
argument in such causes:--"If he had written with this intention he
would not have employed that word; he would not have placed that word
in that place;" for it is from such particulars as these that it is
easiest to collect the intention of the writer. In the next place, it
is necessary to inquire when the document was drawn up, in order that
it may be understood what it was likely that he should have wished
at such a time. Afterwards it will be advisable to point out, by
reference to the topics furnished by the deliberative argument, what
is more useful and what more honourable to the testator to write, and
to the adversary to prove; and it will be well for both parties to
employ common topics, if there is any room for extending either
argument.

XLII. A controversy arises with respect to the letter of the document
and to its meaning, when one party employs the very words which are
set down in the paper; and the other applies all his arguments to that
which he affirms that the framer of the document