offence and the duel, time is afforded for a more quiet consideration of the rashly-spoken words, and a possibility created for the withdrawal of them. But the duel, has many times grown in such a turbulent manner that it has required all the force of the laws to repress the rage for combat, which often surpassed all conception. As the tournay of the Middle Ages degenerated, so has this Middle Age practice now lost much of its original signification; and far the greater number of duels serve, not to terminate disputes between individuals, but to afford an entertainment to the Chore, which is rendered doubly attractive by the charm of danger. The origin of almost every duel would prove the truth of what we have here said. Little matters often conduct to great evils; and though we are disposed to consider the duel, as ordinarily fought, no very great evil, yet the causes out of which it springs are proportionably still less. Honour is truly a thing which does not admit of much modification, or suffer much tampering with; and what will not a strong phantasy see in any thing with its microscopic vision? The delicate and exaggerating nature of these qualities, reminds one in fact of the sportsman who happening to put on a pair of spectacles of much greater magnifying power than usual, suddenly fired off at a fly which passed before his eyes, taking it for a partridge. Many a one vexes himself likewise when others are pleased. He is not in good humour, and their satisfaction or equanimity is an offence to him. A country fellow was angry with a traveller for asking him whether the next village was far off, when its first houses were only a few paces further on. He knew that; but he did not consider that the stranger could not know it, and what was more, he had himself been thinking neither of that village nor any other, but only that he had just lost a lawsuit. In short, every one knows how it is accustomed to happen in such affairs. A son of the Muses is in a bad humour, and so any thing gives him occasion to call thee a _dummen jungen_; or he sends to thee a _dummen jungen_, and the business is settled. The conveyance of such a message is generally consigned to a student of some standing, who knows how to conduct himself in such affairs.