amiable and talented Hamilton lost his life in a duel with Burr, on account of some expressions in a political pamphlet, purporting to have originated with Gen. Hamilton-for which this cruel result was demanded by a wicked code of honor. On the 24th of February, 1838, Mr. Cilley, of Maine, and Mr. Graves of Kentucky, met in Washington, and for a most trivial provocation between them, fired at each other three times with rifles. At the third fire, Mr. Cilley fell dead-his wife was widowed, his children became orphans, and his country was deprived of the services of an excellent and promising son. In addition to these melancholy instances, those savage duels which have been fought in the South Western States with the murderous rifle or the bloody bowie-knife, may be referred to, as frightful exhibitions of the spirit of retaliation. And yet this destruction-which makes widows and orphans mourn; which deprives community of some of its best ornaments; and which stains the hands of man with the blood of his brother-is simply the law of revenge adopted by a certain class of society, whose countenance has made it honor to demand life as the satisfaction of offended pride. But though such conduct may be deemed honorable. in the parlance of this world, yet, in the sight of God and all correct conceptions of right, it is

fashionable murder. An individual who refuses a challenge, is far more honorable, and exhibits a greater degree of moral courage, than he who accepts it. Most persons, in accepting challenges, are prompted by the fear of being branded as cowards, if they decline to endanger their own lives, or those of their fellow-men, in such a cause. Hence it requires more firmness to resist the opinion of duellists, than it does to meet the deadly contest. Those men who have resisted this opinion, have received praise for their moral strength. One instance will be given. In 1800, Major Armstrong, of the British army, challenged the celebrated Sir Eyre Coote, who refused to meet him. When this fact became known to the Commander-in-Chief, the following letter was addressed to Sir Eyre Coote "His Majesty," said the Adjutant-General in this communication, “considers the conduct of Mr. Armstrong, in having endeavored to ground a personal quarrel on the evidence, which you gave in conformity to your duty, on your oath, before a General Court-Martial, as militating not less against the principle of public justice, than against the discipline of the army; and his Majesty has been pleased to direct, that it should be signified to you in the strongest terms, that by having had recourse to the laws of the country on this occasion, you have dis

played a spirit truly commendable as a soldier, and peculiarly becoming the station you hold in his Majesty's service, to which you have rendered a material benefit by furnishing an example, which his Majesty has ordered to be pointed out as worthy the imitation of every officer, under similar circumstances."* How pitiful and degrading is duelling, when compared with such conduct, or with the conduct of the Saviour, which, in its own power and sublimity, illustrated the divine law, love your enemies!" Yet we still claim to be a Christian people, even when enlightened portions of community sanction a rule that is a direct contradiction of one of the most prominent precepts in the Christian.

statutes.

In the plenitude of his wisdom and the divinity of his thoughts, our Saviour deemed that man could, and that it was his duty to "overcome evil with good," as well as an imperative practice in the Christian profession, to "love his enemies." And whenever and wherever the law has been put into direct operation, it has succeeded in a most admirable manner. Though our passions may rise up, and erroneous education intervene, to make us believe that retaliation is necessary, and that thorough kindness

*New York Albion, Vol I., p. 50.

is a dangerous instrument, yet it needs but to be tried in order to be embraced. For when an individual follows its dictates, he finds that it affords him such powerful influence over others, as to lead him to the conclusion, that the law of kindness is the most effectual method of subduing enmity. This position will be sustained by historical facts.

2*

CHAPTER II.

THE POWER OF KINDNESS.

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed
It blesses him who gives, and him who takes ;
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
It is an attribute of God himself.

-We do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

SHAKESPEARE.

THE first illustration of the effects of the law of kindness, which will be adduced, is the conduct of Joseph towards his brethren, exhibiting, as it does, the superior power of "love your enemies over "hate your enemies." On account of the dreams which prefigured the future exaltation of Joseph, his brethren looked upon him as their enemy. In the spirit of revenge, they plotted his murder; and though, by the intercession of one of their number, his life was spared, yet they sold him as a slave, no doubt with the hope that they should never again hear from the dreamer. All this was pure wickedness, and about as cunning a plan as revenge