"The terms 'interpretation' and 'construction' as generally used by courts and legal writers, signify the ascertainment of the thought or meaning of the author of, or of the parties to, a legal document as expressed therein, according to the rules of language and subject to the rules of law."1

The meanings of these terms already has been quite fully discussed and the distinction between the two terms noted, in the previous volume under the subject of Statutory Construction. Very many of the rules there given for the interpretation and construction of statutes can be also applied in the interpretation and construction of contracts. The peculiarities of the rules applied to the interpretation and construction of contracts will be here discussed.