these have such rewards conferred on them.  And then comes the enumeration of those men, and the comparison of them with those against whom the orator is speaking.  But the topics to be used by the man who is claiming the reward are, first of all, the exaggeration of his own action; and next, the comparison of the actions of those men who have had rewards conferred on them with his own; and lastly, he will urge that other men will be repelled from the pursuit of virtue if he himself is denied the reward to which he is entitled.

But the means of conferring the rewards are taken into consideration when any pecuniary reward is asked for; for then it is necessary to consider whether there is an abundance of land, and revenue, and money, or a dearth of them.  The common topics are,—­that it is desirable to increase the resources of the state, not to diminish them; and that he is a shameless man who is not content with gratitude in requital of his services, but who demands also solid rewards.  But, on the other hand, it may be urged, that it is a sordid thing to argue about money, when the question is about showing gratitude to a benefactor; and that the claimant is not asking wages for a piece of work, but honour such as is due for an important service.

And we have now said enough about the statements of cases; now it seems necessary to speak of those controversies which turn upon the letter of the law.

XL.  The controversy turns upon the letter of the law when some doubt arises from the consideration of the exact terms in which it is drawn up.  That arises from ambiguity, from the letter of the law, from its intention, from contrary laws, from ratiocination, and definition.  But a controversy arises from ambiguity, when it is an obscure point what was the intention of the writer, because the written words mean two or even more different things.  In this manner:—­“The father of a family, when he was making his son his heir, left a hundredweight of silver plate to his wife, in these terms: 

“Let my heir give my wife a hundredweight of silver plate, consisting of such vessels as may be chosen.  After he was dead, the mother demands of her son some very magnificent vessels of very valuable carving.  He says that he is only bound to give her those vessels which he himself chooses.”  Here, in the first place, it is necessary to show if possible that the will has not been drawn up in ambiguous terms, because all men in ordinary conversation are accustomed to employ that expression, whether consisting of one word or more, in that meaning in which the speaker hopes to show that this is to be understood.  Then it is desirable to prove that from both the preceding and 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.