ABSTRACT
No sooner had Mr. Williams lost sight of his antagonist, than he felt his heart lightened of its terrors; and he flew home, not to arrange matters for the safety of his wife and child, those despised and neglected names, which, however, he had for once found useful to his own preservation, but to pack up his baggage and finish some little business, before he began a journey which he resolved to do in that evening's mail towards Bristol, as the nearest port whence he could take shipping for Ireland; and having completed all this, he found there was still an hour remaining, which he kindly dedicated to Sir Charles Euston, and employed in composing an epistle, which he left / with directions to be forwarded in the morning; so that just as the Baronet was preparing to go out, a letter from the philosopher was put into his hands, In which he informed him, that having maturely and dispassionately considered the case, he was of opinion, 'that duelling was a remnant of ancient barbarism, and founded in the same superstition which had originally taught men to put the proof of their guilt or innocence into the hands of a sort of judge, whom they, in their folly, styled Providence; but, as for his part, he was fully convinced, that the presiding power, whether worshipped as a deity, or, more rationally, considered as an original principle informing all nature, was at any rate too much engaged to take cognizance, or hold the scales in such an idle cause; he, therefore, was resolved not to put his life upon the issue of an ordeal, but rather, acting up / to his professions, he had heroically determined to face the odium which an ill-judging world is too apt to cast on such a proceeding: and holding to his heart the approbation which minds like his own always bestow on the hero who dares to combat a prejudice, he rose above the herd, and determined, in the face of obloquy, to retire from all possibility of an encounter with Sir Charles: for, elevated as he felt himself, by the sublime desire of breaking one of those bonds which men have invented to enslave each other; yet, being still but a man he dared not again expose himself to the risk of a meeting, lest his anger should burst through the philosophic bounds he had prescribed to it, and, by yielding 151to its impulse, he might be found at last a deserter from the great cause, and the slave of passion.' 68 .
