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fess, in thus giving the alarm before you make the assault.

Asp. This hostility may appear fairer still, when I assure you, that my weapons aim not at the destruction of your comfort, or the demolition of any valuable interest. Only they would be mighty, through God, to pull down the strong-holds of unbelief; and bring every self-exalting, every rebellious thought, captive unto Christ. Captive, in a professed submission to his righteousness, as well as a dutiful subjection to his commands. And, when such is the tendency of the campaign, it will be your greatest advantage to lose the victory. It will be better than a triumph to acknowledge yourself vanquished.

DIALOGUE VIII.

Duelling-Animadversions on the Practice-Spirituality and Extent of the Divine Law-Infinite Purity of God."

Ther, OUR last conversation ended with a challenge. To decline or delay the acceptance of it would look like cowardice in me, and be a piece of injustice to you, Aspasio. Therefore I am now ready to give you all the satisfaction which a gentleman can demand: only as the weather continues hazy, I believe my study must be the place of action.

Asp. A challenge! Theron

Ther. What, sir! do you boggle? would you eat your words, and play the poltroon?

Asp. Perhaps I may have an inclination to follow the example of a brother hero, who ran away from the field of battle just as his comrades were advancing to charge the enemy; and when called to an account for his behaviour, right worthily alleged, that his retreat proceeded, not from any timidity of mind; no, but from a concern for the public good: For,' quoth he, if I had been knocked on the head to-day, how

#2 Cor. x. 4, 5.

should I have been able to fight for my country tomorrow?

You smile, Theron, at my doughty warrior and his sage maxim. But since you have glanced at a certain modish custom, give me leave very seriously to assure you, that if the affair was to be determined by sword and pistol, I should reckon such a conduct, a resolute refusal at least, not at all unmanly, but the truly wise and gallant behaviour: for surely it can never be an instance of wisdom to hazard my life at the mere caprice of a turbulent ruffian, who is a stranger to all the principles of humanity and generosity, but a slave, an abandoned slave, to his own ungovernable passions. Surely, it can never be an act of real bravery to expose my person, because some fool-hardy practitioner in the fencing-school is desperate enough to risk his. The gentleman, the true gentleman, should exert a becoming dignity of spirit; and scorn to set his welfare on a level with that of an inconsiderate and barbarous bully..

Ther. But honour, my Aspasio, honour is at stake. Better to lose our life than forfeit our reputation: better to be in a grave than to be the jest of every coffee-house; and perhaps pointed at, as we pass the streets, for mean-spirited, sneaking, or, as the gentlemen of the sword so elegantly speak, white-livered animals.

Asp. Forfeit our reputation! amongst whom, I be seech you? A few rash and precipitate creatures: the pupils of La Mancha's knight; the sons of chimerat and cruelty, whose applause is infamy, and their detraction the highest praise they can bestow. From

Aspasio calls the person who gives the challenge a bully. And such, notwithstanding all the maxims of fantastical and false honour, he will certainly be found, when tried at the bar of reason or justice. For if the most impetuous, irrational, and brutal barbarity is allowed to constitute a bully, he has an indisputable title to the character, who, on account of a mere punctilio, or some slight affront, would destroy a life that might be of service to society-might be a blessing to various relatives and is intimately connected with a blissful or miserable immortality.

This kind of gentry are styled, in a book with which they have little or no acquaintance, but whose maxims will be had in reverence when their names are lost in oblivion, N, The sons of bluster, or, the children of noise, Jer. xlviii. 45.

every judicious and worthy person your conduct will be sure to gain approbation, and your character esteem. When Cæsar received a challenge from Anthony to engage him in single combat, he very calmly answered the bearer of the message, 'If Anthony is weary of life, tell him, there are other ways to death besides the point of my sword.' Who ever deemed this an instance of cowardice? All ages have admired it as the act of a discreet and gallant man, who was sensible of his own importance, and knew how to treat the petulant and revengeful humour of a discontented adver. sary with its deserved contempt.

Barely to lose our life is the smallest of those evils which attend this mischievous practice. It is pregnant with a long, an almost endless train of disastrous consequences to parents, wives, children, friends, associates, and the community. It is an infallible expedient to be deprived of the favour of the infinite God, and to be excluded from the joys of his eternal kingdom: it is the sure way to become an object of abhor. rence to the angels of light, and be made the laughingstock of devils in their dungeons of darkness. Shame, everlasting shame, shall be the reward of such gal. lantry, the promotion of such fools.t

Ther. With regard to this point, I am entirely of your opinion, Aspasio, however I may differ in other particulars.

Asp. Say you so, Theron! Would you then tamely submit to affronts, insults, and injuries?

Ther. As to the trifling affronts of a peevish incontinent tongue, I would treat them with a superior scorn:

Let me tell you with confidence,' says an excellent person, addressing himself to one of these unhappy desperadoes, that all duels, or single combats, are murderous; blanch them over (how you list) with names of honour and honest pretences, their use is sinful, and their nature devilish.' See the Select Works of Bishop Hall, in one volume, folio, p. 526, where the reader will find a happy mixture of true oratory and sound divinity, a rich vein of fancy, and a sweet spirit of piety; contemplations upon the histories of Scripture (which, I think, are our prelate's master-piece) almost as entertaining and instructive as the subjects illustrated are important and wonderful. Notwithstanding a few stiff or antique phrases, I cannot but esteem the works of this author among the most valuable compositions extant in our language.

* Prov. iii. 35.

and when thus treated, they are sure to recoil with the keenest edge and severest weight upon the impotent malice which offers them. The wretch should see that I could pity his misery and smile at his folly. But as to injuries, the case is otherwise. Should any one as sault my person, it is at his peril: he would find, and perhaps to his smart,

Et nos tela manu, ferrumque haud debile dextrâ
Spargimus, et nostro sequitur de vulnere sanguis.

Here the fundamental and everlasting law of self-preservation calls upon us to play the man; and I am sure Christianity does not require us to yield our throats to the knife, or open our breasts to the dagger.

But to retire-to deliberate-to sit down-and indite a formal challenge, seems to me altogether as savage and iniquitous as to assault on the highway. He that demands my money on the road, or extorts it by an incendiary letter, or decoys me into the snare by a forged and counterfeit note, is stigmatized for a villain, is abhorred by every person of integrity, and, when de tected, is rewarded with a halter. Why should we reckon the headstrong bravo less injurious, who makes his attempt upon my very life, and thirsts with insatiable fury for my blood?

Asp. He allows you a fair chance, it is said.

Ther. A chance! of what? either of falling a sacri. fice to his rage, or of imbruing my hands in his blood; which is neither more nor less than reducing me to a necessity of launching into damnation myself, or of transmitting a fellow-creature to eternal vengeance. And is this an extenuation? this a mitigating circumstance? It really proves the practice so inexcusably wicked, that nothing can be pleaded in its defence. The very argument used to justify the horrid deed, inflames its guilt and aggravates its malignity.

It is pity but the legislative authority would interpose for the suppression of such a flagrant wrong to society, and such a notorious violation of our benign religion. Why should not the laws declare it felony to make the first overture for a duel, since it is always

⚫ Virgil.

more heinous, and frequently more pernicious; Is always murder in the intention, and frequently issues in double destruction: the one inflicted by the stab of violence, the other executed by the sword of justice?

Might it not, at least, be branded with some mark of public infamy, or subjected to a severe pecuniary mulet? so that a gentlemen of spirit and temper might have it in his power to return the compliment of a challenging letter with some such answer:

'Sir, However meanly you may think of your life, I set too high a value upon mine to expose it as a mark for undisciplined and outrageous passions. Neither have I so totally renounced all that is humane, benevo lent, or amiable, as to draw my sword for your de struction, because you have first been overcome by precipitate and unreasonable resentment. You have given me an opportunity of acting the gentleman and the Christian. And this challenge I accept, as a note under your hand for five hundred pounds, which will very soon be demanded, according to law, by,

'Sir, yours, &c.'

Asp. But to resume the proper subject-the nature of our engagement, which I now recollect, and which was. explained when I ventured to give what you call the challenge. As it is not my Theron, but the obstacles of his faith, and the enemies of his felicity that I am to encounter, perhaps I shall have courage to stand my ground; and instead of violating all the obligations of equity, honour, and conscience, I shall certainly evi dence my love to my friend-may possibly promote his truest good.

Might not the refuser of a challenge be dignified with some honorary distinction, resembling the civic crown amongst the ancient Romans since, by his cool and temperate bravery, he saves one life from the sword, another from the halter. Was some honorary distinction, on the one hand, united to a pecuniary for feiture on the other, I cannot but think they would prove an effectual method to check the progress of this destructive evil. It would break the teeth of malice with her own weapons, and turn the artillery of revenge upon herself. Those detestable passions would be loth to indulge themselves in this horrid manner, if it was made the sure way to ennoble and enrich the object of their rage.-N. B. The civic crown was an ornament assigned to those soldiers who had in battle rescued a fellow-citizen from mpending death.

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