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[YHJ]

mmmm.

should have pp means you think you had to do, but you didn't, right?
but
should have pp below

"I should have made a great mistake, if it had not been for his advice."

doesn't mean that, right?

so for me, I'd better change the word 'should'here to 'might'

how do you feel about the sentence above?
No problem to understand, no confusion with the other meaning of 'should have pp'.

[CP]

This must come from something rather old, say more than 60 years ago.

The "should" in this sentence would be "would" if the writer wrote it today. But it was correct when written to mean

"I would have made a great mistake, if it had not been for his advice."

The reason is that, not so long ago, it was the custom to use "shall" for the first person, but "will" for the second and third person: It was correct to say "I shall" and "we shall" instead of "I will" and "we will" for the future tense. Therefore, "I should" and "we should" were the forms instead of "I would" and "we would" in the first person.

I should be ever so grateful if you would give this explanation your kind consideration.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[YHJ]

Thank you so much.
What I can say more?

You're so kind.
I really appreciate.

I don't believe in god but I wish good bless you.

good day.