of drawing up an extraordinary
argument in defence of duelling based upon quotations taken from the
Bible. The emperor takes as the text of his argument that verse of
the writings of St. Paul, in which the Apostle declares that he would
rather die than that anyone should rob him of his good name. William
infers from this that the most eloquent and forcible of all the
fathers of the Church was prepared to fight to the death for the honor
of his name.

"Nowhere in the Bible," adds his majesty, "is there any prohibition
of duelling, not even in the New Testament, which, unlike the Old
Testament, is not a book of law. Indeed, every attempt to use the New
Testament as the basis for a new code of law has resulted in failure."

With regard to the use made by the opponents of duelling of that
law in the Old Testament which proclaims, "Thou shalt not kill,"
the emperor draws attention to another portion of the Old Testament,
wherein is mentioned that the sword shall not be carried in vain. Then
invoking St. Paul's epistle to the Galatians, in which the Apostle
exclaims: "Oh! ye foolish Galatians. This only would I learn of you.
Received ye the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
the faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the spirit, that ye wish
to perfect yourselves in the flesh?"

The emperor declares that to twist the Word of God into a prohibition
of duelling is nothing else than to perfect one's self by the
flesh--that is to say to attribute an altogether material and
common-place interpretation to what is meant spiritually. He adds
that this is just as reprehensible in the eyes of the Almighty as
the attempts by the Pharisees to adapt the Mosaic law to their own
convenience, attempts which were so bitterly denounced by Christ.

Finally, the emperor generally concludes this extraordinary exposition
of his views by the following exordium:

"He who after careful self-examination finds himself compelled to
fight a duel, and whose conscience is clear of sentiments of hatred
and of vengeance, may do so in the conviction that he is in no wise
acting contrary to the Word of God, to the obligations of honor, or
to the accepted customs of society. As in battle, so also in the duel,
which has been forced upon him in one way or another, he may say to
himself: _If we live, we live in the Lord, and if we die, we die in
the Lord, Amen_."

It must be borne in mind that Emperor William delivered himself of
thes