A VILE PRACTICE. 737
yet lived, being imposed unconditionally by ourselves ; we whose beliefs are unshackled, and whose intellects are wanton as the air—were it an attribute of humanity to be absolutely free, surely we might boast our freedom.
But absolute freedom is not an attribute of humanit}", or if it be, the germ of such freedom does not appear. Since the days of feudal serfdom, of trial by combat, of inquisition and impositions, some progress has been made, but progress only of certain kinds and in certain directions. Palpable bondage we object to, and thanks to our forefathers are fairly enough rid of, but bondage impalpable, as far exceeding the other as the infinite exceeds the finite, yet remains. Fetters which we cannot feel we wear as gracefully as ever.
And no fetters imposed by the tyranny of fashion on stupid, ignorant man have been more galling to the wearers, have been worn with less comfort, bringing upon those under bondage to it that very contempt to avoid which they subjected themselves to it, rendering them by means of their unhappy adornment all the more ridiculous in the eyes of all sensible men — none more absurd and wicked than the duello.
Nor may we yet boast our freedom from it. Though by every rightminded member of society a duellist — atid no less those who aid and abet him—is regarded a murderer, the slave of a savage superstition civilized by senseless fashion, and is denounced as a thing vile and contaminating, yet the wars which myriads of men indulge in as the ultimate appeal in the settlement of their differences is but another phase of the same superstition.
What can there be more hateful and unholy, what can there be less in accord with their profession, and the spirit of the divine Christ which they aim to inculcate, than for ministers of the gospel, ranged on either side of a bloody arbitration, to mount their pulpits and solemnly invoke the god of battles to give them victory for the justness of their cause and the
