The duel

General considerations.

Man, or incarnate Spirit, may be on Earth on a mission, in progression, and in punishment.

This being so, you must know, once and for all, that the state of mission, progression, or punishment must, under penalty of beginning the trial again, reach the term fixed by the designs of supreme justice.

To advance by oneself, or by provocation, the instant fixed by God for the return to the world of Spirits is, therefore, an enormous crime. The duel is a still greater crime, because it is not only a suicide, but, moreover, a premeditated murder.

Indeed, do you think that the challenged and the challenger do not morally commit suicide by voluntarily exposing themselves to the mortal blows of the adversary? Do you believe that they are not both murderers, at the moment when they mutually seek to take the life chosen by themselves or imposed by God as an expiation or as a trial?

Yes, I tell you, my friend: the duelists are doubly criminal in the eyes of God; twice terrible will be the punishment, for no excuse will be admitted, since they calculated everything with coldness and premeditation.

I read in your heart, my son, because you too were a poor strayed one, and here is my answer.

In order not to succumb to that terrible temptation you need nothing but humility, sincerity, and charity toward your brother in God. On the contrary, you will succumb only through pride and ostentation.

Spiritual consequences.

He who, through humility, like the Christ has borne the greatest outrage and, for the love of God, forgiven from the heart, besides the celestial rewards of the other life, will have peace of heart in this one and an inconceivable joy at having twice respected the work of God.

He who, through charity toward his neighbor, will have proved to him his fraternal love, will have in the other life the holy protection and the all-powerful concurrence of the glorious mother of the Christ, for she loves and blesses those who fulfill the commandments of God, those who follow and practice the teachings of her Son.

He who, despite all the outrages, will have respected his own existence and that of his brother, will find, on returning to the ethereal world, millions of legions of good and pure Spirits who will come, not to honor him for his action, but to prove, by their zeal in facilitating his first steps in the new existence, the sympathy he was able to attract and the true friends he made among them, his brothers. All together will raise to God sincere thanksgivings for His mercy, which permitted his brother to resist the temptation. He, I say, who will have resisted those sad temptations, may hope, not for the change of the designs of God, which are immutable, but to count on the sincere and affectionate benevolence of the Spirit of Truth — the son of God — who in an incomparable manner will flood his soul with the happiness of understanding the Spirit of perfect justice and infinite goodness and, consequently, will safeguard him from any other similar ambush. On the contrary, those who, challenged or challengers, will have succumbed, may be certain that they will experience the greatest moral tortures through the incessant presence of the corpse of their victim and of their own; for centuries they will be consumed by remorse for having so gravely transgressed the celestial decrees and will be pursued, until the day of expiation, by the terrible specter of the two horrendous visions of their bloodied corpses. Fortunate still if they themselves relieve their sufferings by a sincere and profound repentance, which opens for them the eyes of the soul, because, then, at least they will glimpse a term to their pains, they will understand God and will ask Him for the strength to no longer provoke His terrible justice.

Human consequences.

The words duty, honor, heart, are often put forward by men to justify their actions and their crimes.

Will they always understand such words? Do they not sum up the intentions of the Christ? Why, then, mutilate their meaning? Why, then, regress to barbarism?

Unfortunately, in their generality, men still find themselves under the influence of pride and ostentation. In order to justify themselves in their own eyes, they sound very loudly the words duty, honor, and heart, without suspecting that these signify fulfillment of the commandments of God, wisdom, charity, and love. Meanwhile, with such words they slaughter their brothers; with them they commit suicide and with them they lose themselves. How blind they are! they think themselves strong for having dragged down an unfortunate, weaker than they. They are blind, when they believe that the approval of their conduct by others as blind and wicked as themselves will arouse human consideration for them! The very society in which they live reproves them and will soon curse them, for the reign of fraternity is coming. Meanwhile, sensible men flee from them, as if they were fleeing from wild beasts. Let us examine a few cases and we shall see whether reasoning justifies their interpretation of the words duty, honor, and heart.

A man has his heart pierced with grief and his soul full of bitterness, because he has surprised irrefutable proofs of his wife’s bad conduct. He challenges one of the seducers of that poor and unhappy creature. Would such a provocation be the result of his duties, of his honor, of his heart? No, for his honor will not be restored to him, his personal honor was not nor could have been touched. This will be vengeance. Better still. To prove that his alleged honor is not at stake, it is that often his misfortune is even unknown and would remain so were it not spread by a thousand voices provoked by the scandal that his vengeance occasions.

Finally, if his misfortune were known, it would be sincerely lamented by all sensible men, resulting in numerous proofs of true sympathy, and against him there would not be the laughter of malicious and hardened, but despicable, hearts.

In one case or the other his honor would be neither restored nor taken away.

Thus, pride alone is the mentor of almost all duels, and not honor.

Do you believe that, for a word, the false interpretation of a phrase, the imperceptible and involuntary brushing of an arm in passing, in short for a yes or a no and even, at times, for a glance that was not directed at him, the duelist is impelled by a sentiment of honor to demand an alleged reparation through murder and suicide? Oh! do not doubt it: pride and the certainty of his strength are his only motives, often corroborated by ostentation. Because he wants to show himself off, to give proof of courage, of skill and, at times, of generosity: Ostentation!!! Ostentation, I repeat, because his knowledge in duels is the only true thing; his courage and his generosity are lies.

Do you really wish to test that courageous swordsman? Place him before a rival, of infernal reputation above his own, although, perhaps, of inferior skill: he will turn pale and do everything to avoid the combat. Place him, on the contrary, before one weaker than himself, ignorant of that doubly mortal science, and you will see him merciless, haughty, and arrogant, even when constrained to have pity. Is this courage? Generosity! Oh! let us speak of this. Now, will the man be generous who, confident in his strength, after having provoked weakness, grants to it the continuation of an outraged existence held up to ridicule? Will he be generous who, in order to obtain a thing desired and coveted, provokes its frail possessor in order to obtain it afterward, as a reward for his generosity? Will he be generous who, using his criminal talents, spares the life of the weak beings he has injured? Will he be generous, moreover, when he gives such proof of generosity to the husband or the brother, whom he has unworthily outraged, and thus exposes him, through despair, to a second suicide? Oh! my friends! believe all of you that the duel is a horrendous and terrible invention of the wicked and perverse Spirits, worthy of the state of barbarism, which afflicts to the utmost our father, the God so good.

It falls to you, Spiritists, to combat and destroy this sad habit, this crime worthy of the angels of darkness; it is incumbent upon you, above all, to give the noble example of renunciation of so dire an evil; it falls to you, sincere Spiritists, to make understood the sublimity of these words: duty, honor, and heart; and God will speak through your mouth. It falls to you, finally, the happiness of sowing among your brothers that grain so precious, which we are ignorant of in our terrestrial existence: Spiritism. Your father, ANTHONY.

Remark. – Duels are becoming more and more rare – at least in France – and if we still see, from time to time, painful examples, their number is not comparable to those of former times. In the old days a man did not leave his house without anticipating an encounter and, in consequence, took all precautions. A characteristic sign of the customs of the era and of the peoples lay in the habitual carrying, ostensible or concealed, of offensive and defensive weapons. The abolition of this practice testifies to the softening of customs, and it is curious to follow its gradation from that era, in which the knights never rode without armor and armed with a lance, to the simple carrying of the sword, more as an ornament and accessory of the coat of arms than as an aggressive weapon. Another trait of the customs is that formerly private combats took place in the middle of the street, before the crowd that drew aside to leave the field free, and today they are hidden. Nowadays the death of a man is an event that stirs emotion; formerly no attention was paid to it. Spiritism will sweep away these last vestiges of barbarism, inculcating in men the spirit of charity and of fraternity.