THE ABSURDITY OF WAR. 325 presented in the following account, by a Scotch writer, of a scene he once saw in Nithsdale. The Nithsdale Boys. 690. Two boys from different schools met one fine day upon the ice. They eyed each other with rather jealous and indignant looks, and with defiance on each brow. "What are ye glowrin' at, Billy?" "What's that to you! I'll look where I have a mind, an' hinder me if you daur." A hearty blow was the return to this, and then a battle began. It being Saturday, all the boys of both schools were on the ice, and the fight instantly became general and desperate. I asked one of the party what they were pelting the others for. "O, naething at a', man; we just want to gie them a good thrashing." After fighting till they were quite exhausted, one of the principal heroes stepped up between, covered with blood, and his clothes with tatters, and addressed the belligerent parties thus: "Weel, I'll tell ye what we'll do wi' ye: if ye'll let us alane, we'll let ye alane." There was no more of it: the war was at an end, and the boys scampered away to their play. I thought at the time (says the Scotch writer), and have often thought since, that that trivial affray was the best epitome of war in general that I had ever seen. Kings and ministers of state are just a set of grown up children, exactly like the children I speak of, with only this material difference, that instead of fighting out the needless quarrels they have raised, they sit in safety and look on, send out their innocent but servile subjects to battle, and then, after a waste of blood and treasure, are glad to make the boys' conditions, "If ye'll let us alane, we'll let ye alane." Such being the absurdity, and such the criminality, and such the painful and hideous consequences of war, with grateful hearts we read in holy writ of those better times in prospect, when, in the language of Pope, borrowed from the Hebrew prophet— "No more shall nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes; 691. The sixth precept is justly understood to forbid suicide; and for this reason: that we have not absolute power over our own life, but are bound to retain and employ it to the ends for which it was bestowed, till the gift is resumed by the Giver. 692. Disgust at life will not justify self-murder: because it can exist only in an ungrateful and vicious mind; nor can severe affliction, which, coming from the hand of God, it is our duty to bear with patience; nor can the apprehension of evil, which may not befall us, and to which, if it did come, we should be bound to submit without a murmur. Life is an appointed time, measured out to us by the wisdom of God; it is a race which we must run till we arrive at the goal. As we are not to commit violence against the image of God in the person of any of our fellow-men, so neither in our own: as we are not to rob the society to which we belong, or any part of it, of the service which any other of its members might do to it, we are not to rob it either of what we might do as we are not to send any one else prematurely out of the world, we are not to send ourselves, but wait with patience all the days of our appointed time, till our change come. If the sins which persons have committed prompt them to despair, they, of all others, instead of rushing into the presence of God by adding this dreadful one to them, should earnestly desire space to repent, which, by his grace, the worst of sinners may do, and be forgiven. 693. Beside the violation of the duties just specified, when persons, in any case, make way with themselves, they, by that act, arraign the constitution of things which God hath appointed; and refuse living where he hath put them to live-a very provoking instance of undutifulness, which is rendered peculiarly fatal by this circumstance, that, leaving usually no room for repentance, it leaves none for pardon: always excepting where it proceeds from a mind so disordered by a bodily disease as to be incapable of judging or acting reasonably; for God knows with certainty when this is the case and when not, and will accordingly either make due allowances, or make [Secker; Professor Dick. none. VI. Dueling. 694. It may easily be shown that dueling is a flagrant breach of the Sixth Commandment. The challenge to a duel is a proposition to kill or be killed: it is given and accepted deliberately with such an understanding: deadly weapons are used, and at such short distances as may generally secure the horrible result: not unfrequently both parties in a duel mortally wound each other: professed duelists prepare themselves by long practice to engage in the work of killing an antagonist with facility and precision: the work of death in such cases is most commonly perpetrated with feelings of hatred and revenge: it is also done in most cases under very slight provocations. In view of all these things it possesses attributes of a gross criminality, such as belong to few other kinds of murder. Wherever human life is deliberately taken away, otherwise than by public authority, there is murder. No other definition of murder can be admitted without letting in so much private violence, as to render society a scene of peril and bloodshed. But this definition makes dueling, murder. 695. Dueling, as a punishment, is absurd: because it is an equal chance, whether the punishment fall upon the offender, or the person offended. Nor is it much better as a reparation; it being difficult to explain in what the satisfaction consists, or how it tends to undo the injury, or to afford a compensation for the damage already sustained. The truth is, it is not considered as either; but simply as an expedient to prevent, in the view of a corrupt sentiment, the imputation of cowardice on receiving or giving an affront. Challenges are given and accepted, to preserve a duelist's reputation and reception among those who uphold what is falsely called the law of honor. For reasons already assigned, it might more properly be designated the LAW OF INFAMY-and deeply is it to be regretted that it had not been viewed as such by Alexander Hamilton and many other brilliant American citizens, who have sacrificed themselves to uphold its murderous demands. 328 CAUSES OF MURDER FORBIDDEN. Hence it becomes the duty of all, to discourage and condemn the practice of dueling-to brand it with infamy -and to uphold the laws of the land, which require the parties to it to be dealt with as murderers. The law of God should stand, though the law of honor (falsely so called) should fall. There can be no honor in dishonoring and violating the law of God, which is the only sure basis of public and private happiness-the only correct standard of honorable feeling and of honorable action. [Dwight and Paley.] VII. Other Prohibitions of the Sixth Precept. 696. (1.) The grand prohibition is murder. As to the manner in which murder is committed, whether a person do it directly himself, or employ another; whether he do it by force, or fraud, or color of justice; accusing falsely, or taking any undue advantage; these things make little further difference in the guilt, than that the most artful and studied way is generally the worst. (2.) Not only the outward act of murder is prohibited, but all the causes which lead to it: such as, envy, malice, revenge, secret wishes of evil to others, and imprecations of evil, unjust and excessive anger, and fighting of every kind between man and man. If we do a person no harm, yet intend or wish him harm, the apostle John has stigmatized the act as a species of murder: "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." For indeed, hatred not only leads to murder, and too often, when indulged, produces it unexpectedly; but it is always, though perhaps for the most part in a lower degree, the very spirit of murder in the heart, and it is by our hearts that God will judge us. Should our dislike of another not rise to fixed hatred and malice, yet if it rise to unjust anger, we are very criminal in our Savior's view: "It was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment." (Matt. v. 21.) That is, whosoever is angry, either with persons that he ought not; or more vehemently, or sooner, or longer, than he ought to be, is guilty in some measure of that unchari OCCASIONS OF MURDER FORBIDDEN. 329 tableness of which murder is the highest act, and liable to the punishment of it in the same proportion. (3.) If a person does not directly design the death of another, yet if he designedly does what he knows or suspects may probably occasion it, he is, in proportion to such knowledge or suspicion, guilty. Nay, if he is only negligent in matters which may affect human life, or meddles with them when he has cause to think he understands them not, he is far from innocent; and there are several professions and employments in which these truths ought to be considered with peculiar seriousness and concern. "The spirit of the precept plainly interdicts all those callings, occupations, and practices which are injurious to the health or safety of the community, such as the manufacture or sale of articles of diet or beverage which we have every reason to believe will be abused, to the hurt or death of men's bodies, to say nothing of the effects upon the undying soul. In like manner all incompetent practice of the medical art; all competing trials of speed in steamboats; all pugilistic combats, and whatever goes to wound, cripple, or maim the body, and thus endanger life, comes fairly within the range of what is forbidden by the Sixth Commandment." [Bush.] (4.) If it be criminal to contribute in any manner toward taking away a person's life immediately, it must be criminal also to contribute anything toward shortening it, which is taking it away gradually; whether by bringing any bodily disease upon him, or causing him any grief or anxiety of mind, or by what indeed will produce both, distressing him in his circumstances. Indeed, if we cause or procure any sort of hurt to another, though it hath no tendency to deprive him of life, yet if it makes any part of his life more or less uneasy, we deprive him so far of what makes it valuable to him, which is equivalent to taking so much of it away from him. "I hesitate not," says Dr. Dwight, "to pronounce that unkindness, which, especially when exercised toward inferiors and dependents, wears upon the spirits, and often breaks the hearts of our fellow-creatures, to be a crime of the same nature as murder. In order to shorten human life, it is not necessary to use a bludgeon nor a pistol. Servants may be easily brought to an untimely grave by stinting them with respect to their necessary food, clothes, |