as disreputable, and as great an impediment to
advancement in the Service, as being bashful in time of action.

Sir MARK. Yet I have been informed by some old Cavaliers, of famous
reputation for brave and gallant men, that they were much more in mode
among their party, than they have been during this last war.

Col. PLUME. That is true too, sir. Mr. SAGE. By what you say,
gentlemen, one should think that our present military officers are
compounded of an equal proportion of both those tempers; since duels are
neither quite discountenanced, nor much in vogue.

Sir MARK. That difference of temper, in regard to duels, which appears
to have been between the Court and Parliament-men of the sword, was not
(I conceive) for want of courage in the latter, nor of a liberal
education; because there were some of the best families in England
engaged in that party; but gallantry and mode, which glitter agreeably
to the imagination, were encouraged by the Court, as promoting its
splendour; and it was as natural that the contrary party (who were to
recommend themselves to the public for men of serious and solid parts)
should deviate from everything chimerical.

Mr. SAGE. I have never read of a duel among the Romans; and yet their
nobility used more liberty with their tongues than one may do now
without being challenged.

Sir MARK. Perhaps the Romans were of opinion, that ill language, and
brutal manners, reflected only on those who were guilty of them; and
that a man's reputation was not at all cleared by cutting the person's
throat who had reflected upon it: but the custom of those times had
fixed the scandal in the action; whereas now it lies in the reproach.

Mr. SAGE. And yet the only sort of duel that one can conceive to have
been fought upon motives truly honourable and allowable, was that
between the Horatii and Curiatii.

Sir MARK. Colonel Plume, pray what was the method of single combat in
your time among the Cavaliers? I suppose, that as the use of clothes
continues, though the fashion of them has been mutable; so duels,
though still in use, have had in all times their particular modes of
performance.

Col. PLUME. We had no constant rule, but generally conducted our dispute
and tilt according to the last that had happened between persons of
reputation among the very top fellows for bravery and gallantry.

Sir MARK. If the fashion of quarrelling and tilting was so often changed
in your time, Colonel Plume, a man mig