Rather it would be our fixed and hearty
resolution, at whatever cost of time, or labour, or pecuniary sacrifice,
or personal discomfort, to apply to the instrument our unbiassed powers
of upright and honest interpretation.
Or adopting the latter analogy, we should sincerely strive to ascertain
the chief and leading objects of our parent's will; what were his
intentions generally; what ruling principles seemed to pervade his views
in framing the testament; and in all cases of obscurity and doubt, in
every thing approaching an appearance of inconsistency, we should refer
to that paramount principle as our test and guide. We should not for a
moment {16} suffer ourselves to be tempted to seek for ambiguous
expressions, which ingenuity might interpret so as to countenance our
departure from the general drift of our parent's will, in cases where it
was at variance with our own inclination, and where we could have wished
that he had made another disposition of his property, or given to us a
different direction, or trusted us with larger discretion. Moreover, in
any points of difficulty, we should apply for assistance, in solving our
doubts, to such persons as were most likely to have the power of judging
correctly, and whose judgment would be least biassed by partiality and
prejudice;--not to those whose credit was staked on the maintenance of
those principles which best accorded with our own inclination.
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