Excerpt from Duelling: Being the Enlargement of a Discourse on a Late Fatal Event, Preached in D'olier-Street Chapel, Dublin I. Trace the origin or the duel - AS the child Ofanger and revenge, it were enough for a wise man to be reminded, that from human depravity, as the immediate source, this bloody monster springs; begotten of the god of this world, who was a murderer from the beginning, and who rules in the hearts of the children Of disobedience. For. Ears polite, however, this language may be too quaint, and We take other ground. In a civilized and chris tian country, one might suppose that all the ideas Of honor, pro priety, and good breeding, would arise out of the existing laws; and as the laws Of every country are based upon its religion, that the maxims and customs, Of society would be compatible with the religion Of the state. How Wondrous and unaccountable must it be confessed, by those whose, philosophy enters not into the depravity and deceitfulness Of the human heart, that the laws Of honor and the customs Of fashion in our civilized and Christian land are in direct opposition to those religious truths which are an integral part Of the constitution; that Christian and Gentleman are terms Of abs'olute contrariety; and that we have 'drawn from rude and barbarous nations one of the most prevailing practices Of society. Strange it is, indeed, that a generation which boasts the march of intellect and the progress'of science, should recognize and sanction man ners which naturally characterised the infancy Of the govern ments of the earth. In the jurisprudence Of those early states, it was customary to decide civil questions and other controversies by what was called judicial combat; on which occasion the accuser and accused gave pledges on their behalf to the presiding judge; and if, on the appointed day, one Of the parties fell in the combat. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.