As a palliative to this rash arrogance, people are in the habit of giving way on everything.  If two intrepid persons meet, and neither will give way, the slightest difference may cause a shower of abuse, then fisticuffs, and, finally, a fatal blow:  so that it would really be a more decorous proceeding to omit the intermediate steps and appeal to arms at once.  An appeal to arms has its own special formalities; and these have developed into a rigid and precise system of laws and regulations, together forming the most solemn farce there is—­a regular temple of honor dedicated to folly!  For if two intrepid persons dispute over some trivial matter, (more important affairs are dealt with by law), one of them, the cleverer of the two, will of course yield; and they will agree to differ.  That this is so is proved by the fact that common people,—­or, rather, the numerous classes of the community who do not acknowledge the principle of knightly honor, let any dispute run its natural course.  Amongst these classes homicide is a hundredfold rarer than amongst those—­and they amount, perhaps, in all, to hardly one in a thousand,—­who pay homage to the principle:  and even blows are of no very frequent occurrence.

Then it has been said that the manners and tone of good society are ultimately based upon this principle of honor, which, with its system of duels, is made out to be a bulwark against the assaults of savagery and rudeness.  But Athens, Corinth and Rome could assuredly boast of good, nay, excellent society, and manners and tone of a high order, without any support from the bogey of knightly honor.  It is true that women did not occupy that prominent place in ancient society which they hold now, when conversation has taken on a frivolous and trifling character, to the exclusion of that weighty discourse which distinguished the ancients.

This change has certainly contributed a great deal to bring about the tendency, which is observable in good society now-a-days, to prefer personal courage to the possession of any other quality.  The fact is that personal courage is really a very subordinate virtue,—­merely the distinguishing mark of a subaltern,—­a virtue, indeed, in which we are surpassed by the lower animals; or else you would not hear people say, as brave as a lion.  Far from being the pillar of society, knightly honor affords a sure asylum, in general for dishonesty and wickedness, and also for small incivilities, want of consideration and unmannerliness.  Rude behavior is often passed over in silence because no one cares to risk his neck in correcting it.

After what I have said, it will not appear strange that the dueling system is carried to the highest pitch of sanguinary zeal precisely in that nation whose political and financial records show that they are not too honorable.  What that nation is like in its private and domestic life, is a question which may be best put to those who are experienced in the matter.  Their urbanity and social culture have long been conspicuous by their absence.