Page:An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers and Instruments attributed to Shakspeare.djvu/28

account, however satisfactory, will not substantiate or establish the paper or instrument produced; it merely entitles it to be read and examined: and then it is to be tried by all those tests by which falsehood is distinguished from truth. But suppose a person should come into that court, and, after refusing to give any answer whatsoever to the inquiries which on such an occasion are always made, should throw his paper on the table, and address the very learned’ and respectable Judge who presides there in these words;—“Wherefore, Sir, are you placed on that bench, unless you are able to ascertain whether the testamentary writing under which I claim, be genuine or not? you have the aid of his Majesty’s Advocate General, a man of as much ability and integrity as any person who ever filled that high office; you are surrounded by many other Doctors learned in the law; what avails all your reading, to what end have you expended so many years in perusing your Institutes, your Pandects, and your Codes, if all your lucubrations, and all your sagacity will not enable you to discern whether this little paper be authentick or not: I will give you no account of it; but I call upon you to do