"If in the vast majority of possible cases—in all of ordinary occurrence—the law is in no degree inconsistent or unreasonable, construed according to its plain words, it seems to me to be an untenable proposition, and unsupported by authority, to say that the construction may be varied in every case because there is one possible, but highly improbable one, in which the law would operate with great severity, and against our own notions of justice."