“(f) Adequate provisions should be inserted for trust features; these are operative only after the probate administration is ended, unless otherwise directed, and they should be full, definite and clear.
“(g) There should be a residuary clause which catches up and disposes of any portion of the estate not already disposed of, including lapsed legacies and devises.
“(h) The executor should be named.
“(i) The date and signature.
“(j) Finally, the attestation.
“To me it is incomprehensible that nine men out of ten who make their wills, seek to hamper and restrain the remarriage of their widows; neither the age of the husband nor of the wife seems to deter a testator in this direction: on the other hand, I have never seen but one such restriction in the will of a married woman; and this spirit of faith and trust, in a comparative view of the sexes, is, I believe, quite as marked in the daily walks of life, notwithstanding the lines of Saxe which run:
‘Men dying make their wills, but wives
Escape a work so sad;
Why should they make what all their lives,
The gentle dames have had?’
“It may be said that a condition subsequent in general restraint of the marriage of a person who has never married, annexed to a gift, is contrary to public policy and void.
“A man should make his will when he is in a normal and healthy condition; it should be done timely and deliberately. A prominent legal writer says: ‘It is astounding how frequently from indolence, procrastination, or superstition, men will postpone this needful act until the last. Some, like old Euclio in Pope, with the ruling passion strong in death, cannot endure the thought of parting with their possessions, even post mortem, and die intestate. Few testators know their own minds, and a deathbed will is as sorry a substitute for a carefully prepared instrument, as a deathbed repentance is for a well-ordered life.’ A sick man or a very aged man, as a rule, is not in a condition to judge fairly of the affairs of human life. He is apt to be unconsciously influenced and misled, or even coerced. He may be diverted from the natural channels of affection, right and justice. Frequently the result is disastrous litigation, the breaking of domestic ties, and the exposure of family skeletons.
“Lord Coke said a long time ago, ‘Few men, pinched with the messengers of death, have a disposing memory.’ ‘Such a will, he adds, ‘is sometimes in haste and commonly by slender advice and is subject to so many questions in this eagle-eyed world. And it is some blemish or touch to a man well esteemed for his wisdom and discretion all his life, to leave a troubled estate behind him, amongst his wife, children or kindred, after his death.’