Led by a delicate and tender prince,...
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell";
and when, again, giving to the sentiment its strongest and most popular expression, he exclaims,—
"Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honor's at the stake."
And when is honor at stake? This inquiry opens again the argument with which I commenced, and with which I hope to close. Honor can be at stake only where justice and beneficence are at stake; it can never depend on egg-shell or straw; it can never depend on any hasty word of anger or folly, not even if followed by vulgar violence. True honor appears in the dignity of the human soul, in that highest moral and intellectual excellence which is the nearest approach to qualities we reverence as attributes of God. Our community frowns with indignation upon the profaneness of the duel, having its rise in this irrational point of honor. Are you aware that you indulge the same sentiment on a gigantic scale, when you recognize this very point of honor as a proper apology for War? We have already seen that justice is in no respect promoted by War. Is True Honor promoted where justice is not?