DUELLING 1

Source: the gospel according to Spiritism,, XII: 11-16.

Matthew, V: 20 e 43 to 47

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

RETURN GOODNESS FOR EVIL
1. Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto
you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite
fully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven: for He maketh his
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which
love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do
ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? (Matthew, 5: 43- 47).
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew, 5: 20).

DUELLING
11. A person is only truly worthy if, when thinking of life as a journey which leads to a determined point, they
take little heed of the roughness of the way and do not allow their footsteps to turn aside from the straight and
narrow path. With their gaze firmly set on a distant point to be reached, it is of no importance to them that briars and
thorns threaten to scratch, as these do not impede progress.
To devote one's time to avenging an affront is to recoil before life's ordeals and is always a crime in the eyes
of God; and if you were not beguiled, as indeed you are, by your own prejudices, you would see it as being
ridiculous and supreme madness.
It is a crime to commit homicide by duelling, as even your own laws recognize. No one has the right, under
any circumstances, to make an attempt against the life of a fellow creature as this is, I repeat, a crime in the eyes of
God who has traced the line of conduct required to be followed.
In this case, more than in any other occurrence, you are your own judge. Remember, you will be pardoned
only in as much as you are able to pardon others. Through the act of pardoning you draw near to the Lord, since
clemency is akin to strength. While even a drop of blood drawn by the hands of Man flows upon the Earth the true
Kingdom of God, wherein will reign peace and love which will banish animosity, discord and wars forever, will still
not have been implanted on this planet.
When this happens the word 'duel' will exist in your language only as a distant and vague remembrance of a
past that is gone. Then no other antagonism will exist amongst mankind, apart from the noble rivalry of
righteousness. ADOLPH, Bishop of Argel (Marmande, 1861).

12. Beyond all doubt, in certain cases duelling may constitute a test of physical courage, of disdain for life. But
unquestionably it is a proof of moral cowardice, just as suicide is. The suicide has not the courage to face the
vicissitudes of life, whereas the duellist cannot support offences.
Was it not Christ who said there is more honour and value in presenting the left cheek to he who has hit you
on the right, than in avenging an offence? Did He not say to Peter in the Garden of Olives: 'Put away your sword
because he who kills with the sword shall also perish by the sword'?
In so saying did He not condemn for ever the act of duelling? In fact, my children, what kind of courage comes
from a violent disposition, from a bloody and wrathful temperament which bellows at the slightest offence? What
greatness can be found in a person who at the least insult believes that only blood can repair the damage? Let him
tremble! For, from the bottom of his conscience a voice will persist in saying: "Cain! Cain!
What have you done to your brother?" And he will answer that it was necessary to spill blood in order to save
his honour. Then the voice will reply: "In the few minutes that remain to you of your earthly life, you thought only to
save your honour before men, but you never thought to save it before God!" Poor wretch! How much blood will
Christ demand of you for all the violence He has received?
Was it not enough that you injured Him with thorns and lances? That you put on Him an infamous garment,
and that in the middle of His atrocious agony, you made Him listen to the mockery and derision that was showered
upon Him?
1
Estudo feito no Centro Espírita Joana d’Arc a 04/ 08/ 2009.

1
 How many reparations has He asked of you for your many offences? The last cry of the Shepherd was a
supplication to God in favour of His torturers! Oh! Be like Him! Forgive and pray for those who offend you.
My friends, remember the precept: 'Love one another.' Then for every blow received through hate, you will be
able to reply with a smile and to every affront, you will offer forgiveness.
Without doubt the world will rise up in fury and treat you as a coward. So, lift your head up high and show you
are not afraid to gird yourself with thorns as Christ did, and that your hand does not wish to be accomplice to a
assassination authorized by false ideas of honour, that are nevertheless nothing more than pride and self-conceit
When God created Man, did He bestow the right of life and death one over the other? No, this right was given only
to Nature for the purpose of reconstruction and reorganization, whereas you are not permitted to dispose even of
yourselves.
The duellist then, just as the suicide, will find himself marked by blood when he comes before God.
For both of these the Supreme Judge will reserve long and harsh penalties. If this same Judge has
threatened all who call their fellow beings by the name of Raca, how much more severe will be the punishment for
those who reach His presence with the blood of their brothers and sisters on their hands! - SAINT AUGUSTIN
(Paris, 1862).

13. The duel, once called God's justice, is one of the most barbaric customs still persisting in some human
societies. What would you say, however, if you saw two adversaries being plunged into boiling water or submitted to
the contact of red hot iron, in order to put an end to their dispute?
The one who is right being he who best suffers the test? Would you not classify these customs as being
unreasonable and senseless? Well, duelling is far worse than all this. For the dexterous duelist it is nothing short of
murder, practiced in cold blood with all due premeditation, since he is certain of the efficiency of the blow to be
dealt.
For the adversary, who is almost sure to succumb by virtue of his weakness and inability, it is suicide
committed after cold reflection. I know that on many occasions the person has sought to avoid the consequences of
the criminal alternative by placing the responsibility for the act upon chance. Is this not going back, under another
name, to the ideas from the Middle Ages of God's Judgment?
We remind you that in those times Man was infinitely less guilty. It is true that the very use of the words 'God's
Judgment' reveals a naive faith, but it was always some small degree of faith in the Justice of God, Who could
never allow the innocent to succumb, whereas a duel resorts to brute force to such an extent that frequently the one
who was offended is the one who succumbs.
Oh, senseless conceit, foolish vanity and insane pride, when will you be substituted by Christian charity, by
love of one's fellow creatures and by humility, all of which were prescribed and exemplified by Christ? This will only
happen when Man ceases to be dominated by these monstrous preconceptions, which the laws are impotent to
repress because it is not enough to prohibit evil. For this to occur it is necessary for the source of goodness and the
horror of evil to live jointly in the hearts of all humanity. - A Protecting Spirit (Bordeaux, 1861).

14. "What will they say about me," you frequently ask, "if I refuse to make the reparation that is being
demanded of me or if I do not complain about those who offend me?" Those like you who are foolish, those who are
backward, will censure you. But those who have been enlightened by the beacon of intellectual and moral progress
will say that you have proceeded with true wisdom.
Let us reflect then for a moment. Due to a word, sometimes said without thinking or the wish to offend,
coming from one of your fellow beings, your pride is hurt, so you then reply scathingly and there stems a
provocation. Before the decisive moment arrives ask yourself if you are behaving like a Christian. What will you
have to answer to society for if you rob it of one of its members?
Think of the remorse of having deprived a woman of her husband, a mother of her child, the children of their
father and with this their means of sustenance! For sure, the one who offended owes recompense. But is it not more
honorable to give this spontaneously, recognizing one's errors, than to endanger the life of the one who has the
right to complain?
As to the offended, it so happens that sometimes, because they feel gravely injured themselves or that
someone dear to them has been insulted, it is not only self-respect that is at stake, but that their heart has been hurt
and is suffering.
So apart from it being stupid to risk one's life by throwing oneself against a wretch who is capable of infamy,
we would ask if when the person dies, the insult does or whatever it was, cease to exist? Is it not true that when
blood is spilt it leaves an even deeper impression of a fact which, if false, will fall of its own accord and if true, would
be better buried in silence?

2
 Then nothing more is left than the quenching of the thirst for vengeance! Ah! Unhappy satisfaction which
almost always gives way, even in this life, to pungent remorse! When it is the one that was offended who succumbs,
where is the retribution?
When charity finally becomes the general rule of conduct for humanity, all acts and words will be confined to
this maxim: Do not do to others that which you would not wish them to do to you. When this happens all causes for
dissensions will disappear and with this the duels and wars, which are only duels between nations -
FRANÇOIS-XAVIER (Bordeaux, 1861).

15. Because of an offensive word, possibly something slight, a man of the world throws away his life, which
came from God, or throws away the life of a fellow creature, which also belongs to God. This man is a hundred
times more guilty than the scoundrel, driven by covetousness and sometimes by necessity, which enters into a
residence with intent to rob and kills all those who oppose his intentions.
In this case, we are usually dealing with a person of little education having an imperfect notion of good and
bad; whereas the duellist, as a rule, belongs to the more cultured class. The one kills with brutality, while the other
kills with method and refinement, in view of which society forgives him.
I would even add that the duellist is infinitely more guilty than the scoundrel who, on giving way to a desire for
vengeance, kills in a moment of exasperation. The duellist however does not have the excuse of a frenzy of
passion, because between the moment of insult and retribution there has been time for reflection. He acts coldly,
with premeditation, studying and calculating everything so that he may be more sure of killing his opponent it is true
he also exposes his own life, which is what rehabilitates him in the eyes of the public, as they see only an act of
courage and disregard for life.
But is there any courage on the part of someone who is sure of himself? The duel, reminiscent of barbarous
times in which the right of the strongest was law, will disappear as a result of a better appreciation of what a point of
honour really means, and according to the extent that mankind deposits living faith in a future life.
-AUGUSTIN (Bordeaux, 1861).

16. REMARKS: As time goes by, duelling is becoming more and more rare. But if from time to time a painful
example still occurs, at least the number is greatly diminished compared with days gone by. In those olden days a
man could not leave his house without anticipating an encounter, and so always took the necessary precautions. A
characteristic sign of the habits of those times and of the people was the habitual presence, either ostensible or
hidden, of arms for both attack and defense.
The abolition of this custom demonstrates the softening of habits, and it is interesting to follow this graduation
from the epoch in which a gentleman only rode out covered with amour plate, to the times when a sword at the
waist was more an ornament or blazon than a weapon of aggression.
Another indication of the modification of these customs is that formerly these strange combats were held in
the middle of a thoroughfare before a mob, whereas in more recent times they were held in secret. At present,
death is something which causes emotion. But in other times no one took any notice of it.

RELEVANT POINTS OF THE ITEMS:

Item, 11 - to expose their days to avenge of an offense are to retreat from the probations of the life, it is
always a crime to the eyes of God.
There is crime in the homicide in duelling.
Nobody is entitled in any case of attempting against his fellow creature's life.
Remember that you will only be forgiven, as you forgive.

Item, 12 - Duel is a proof of moral cowardice, as the suicide is.

Has not Christ tell you that there are more honor and value in presenting the left face to he who beat in the
right.
Jesus said to S. Peter: Put away your sword because he who kills by the sword shall also perish by the sword..
Remember this precept" Love one another", then for every blow received through hate, you will be able to reply
with a smile, and to every affront, and you will offer forgiveness.
The duelist then, just as the suicide, will find himself marked by the blood, when he comes before God.

Item, 13 - For the dexterous duelist it is nothing short of murder, practiced in cold blood with all due
premeditation, since he is certain of the efficiency of the blow to be dealt..

3
 For the adversary, who is almost sure to succumb by virtue of his weakness and inability, it is suicide
committed after cold reflection.
A duel resorts to brute force, to such an extent that frequently the one who was offended is the one who
succumbs.

Item, 14 -
“What will they say about me,” you frequently ask, “If I refuse to make the reparation that is being demanded of
me or if I do not complain about those who offend me?
Before the decisive moment arrives ask yourself if you are behaving like a Christian?
What will you have to answer to society for if you rob it of one of its members? Think of the remorse of having
deprived a woman of her husband, a mother of her child, the children of their father and with this their means of
sustenance?
.Ah! Unhappy satisfaction which almost always gives way, even in this life, to pungent remorse! When it is the
one that was offended who succumbs, where is the retribution?
When charity finally becomes the general rule of conduct for humanity, all acts and words will be confined to
this maxim: Do not do to others that which you would not wish them to do to you. When this happens all causes for
dissensions will disappear and with this the duels and wars, which are only duels between nations..

Item, 15 - Because an offensive word, possibly something slight, a man of the world throws away his life,
which came from God, or throws away the life of a fellow creature, which also belongs to God.
This man is a hundred times more guilty than the scoundrel, driven by covetousness and sometimes by
necessity, which enters into a residence with intent to rob and kills all those who oppose his intentions. In this case,
we are usually dealing with a person of little education having an imperfect notion of good and bad; whereas the
duelist, as a rule, belongs to the more cultured classes. The one kills with brutality, while the other kills with method
and refinement, in view of which society forgives him.
The duel, reminiscent of barbarous times in which the right of the strongest was law, will disappear as a result
of a better appreciation of what a point of honor really means, and according to the extent that mankind deposits
living faith in a future life.

Item, 16 - As time goes by, duelling is becoming more and more rare, But, if from time to time a painful
example still occurs, at least the number is greatly diminished compared with the days gone by. In those olden days a
man could not leave his house without anticipating an encounter, and so always took the necessary precautions.. A
characteristic sign of the habits of those times and of the people was the habitual presence, either ostensible or
hidden, of arms for both attack and defense.
At present, death is something which causes emotion. But in other times no one took any notice of it.
Spiritism will turn off those last tracks of barbarism, infusing in men charity and fraternity spirit.
***

CONSIDERATIONS:
The duel was a thing of the habits of the Society in the past, the Society of then, I suppose that it was morally
corrupt or hypocritical, with strayed away sheep from Christian flock, and they lived in a way that they showed to be
what they really were not, and unconscious of that they showed social appearances, which seemed worthy of their
Society, of updated culture in the recent convulsions of the social transformations, and they had well developed rules
of Code of Honor, which gave them the right of defending themselves if offended.
Of that offense they enlisted witnesses, and automatically the community's judges were called and, exposed the
case, they marked the encounter of the revenge, in which the offended were entitled of the choice of weapon,
however the gentlemen in general were acquainted of the gentleman's weapon of honor, which was a pistol of only
one bullet.
The judges put them back to back and they walk twenty steps in opposed sides, and judges give the order of
stopping and to face themselves and to their command they say: point out... fire, and it was rare somebody to shoot
before time, because they did not consider themselves cowards, thence the ability of the shooter, if nobody were hurt
it was resolved if the honor was satisfied, or else it was argued again, if it was resolved that it would be until death.
The rules were obeyed with the most rigidity, because also they felt before God in life or in death, and strangely
they deposited themselves in the hands of God and they uttered:

4
 'May His will be made', it was such blindness that only those who had common sense sought defense
godfathers, and specialists of peace, what cost certainly a lot of money, and many walked very carefully, because
there were many dad-boys living accordingly to the habit of the times, in nightclub types and if they use to get
themselves involved in fights if not casual, sometimes of honor and they regarded all this natural.
Most of them were Christian, but apparently and of little love, in virtue of the whirl and disturbance of the times,
of societies kept apart in conventional ideals, in the search of suave social justice of acceptable steadiness for all, in
the ascendant transformations of the people, who from the oppressions raised up and freed themselves, and in
themselves germinated turbulent and hate, and the hate generates anger, the dissatisfaction, the bitterness, the
spiritual instability, the emotional disarray and the revenge flowing off the very skin.
While it is said that love builds, that love is tolerant, that love knows how to forgive, that love does not keep
bitterness, that love seeks peace etc.
In opposite we can say that hate destroys, that hate is intolerant, that hate does not forgive, that hate keeps
bitterness, and that hate does not have in itself peace.
And, of that life of social unstable state emotional, in the turnings of social adjustments was born and died the
habit of duelling, which the understanding in the mutual love caused to be extinguished off the Society, for the better
of the Society or of the people.
It is, certainly a testimony that man developed quite a lot morally,2 although there are injustices parallel even
worse than duelling, however not for laws or rules, but for people possessors of Spirits inferior, immoral, irreverent,
revengeful and followers of their perverse instincts; those are the true devils 3 that afflict and torment us, be them
incarnated or disincarnated.
Yes, duels nowadays we have them, however they are duels in goodness, they are duels of efforts in spiritist
well understand 'make an effort'; 4 duels in the defense of everything that is good,
Duels against ignorance, superstition and cruelty,
Of fights against our inferiorities,
Against the difficulties of life, against the moral dissatisfactions,
Against the dissatisfactions and social inequalities,
Against the difficulties and inequalities in the health,
Against the difficulties and inequalities in education,
Fights for a better world with more justice, struggles for a personal improvement or for the family, then God
helps us since He loves us and accompanies us and He knows our efforts, once so it is of His Will since He created
us' simple and ignorant', 5 in order that we may grow on our own step or rhythm and with our knowledge we can say in
good faith: ’May his will be done' 6
Fights or duels that might be are part of our world of Tests and Atonements, 7 of our evolutionary development,
of our moral progress, spiritual or intellectual, attracted towards our God Creator and Father. 8

***
Let us see to support this study a little of what Allan Kardec
tells us in 'Posthumous works’ on Equality, Fraternity and
Freedom, because it was still fresh in his mind the birth of new
epochs in the Human Society:

Freedom, Equality, Fraternity

2
Unceasing progress = inscription in the tomb of Allan Kardec, in Paris, - (see,
Posthumous Works. )
3
Allan Kardec, book, - ‘Heaven and Hell’, 9: 22.
4
The gospel according to Spiritism, 7: 4.
5
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 115-121- - We are His creation, Q. 77.
6
Matthew, 6: 9 - Luke, 11: 2-4.
7
The Gospel according to Spiritism, 3: 13-15.
8
John, 16: 28 & 20: 2-17. - The Spirits’ Book, Q. 129.

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 "Freedom, equality, fraternity, and these three words are, for itself alone, the program of an entire social order
that would accomplish the Humanity's most absolute progress, if the principles which they represent could receive its
complete application. Let us see the obstacles that, in the current state of the society, can oppose to that and, beside
the evil, let us seek the remedy.
Fraternity, in the rigorous meaning of the word, summarizes all the men's duties relatively to each other; it
means: devotement, self-denial, tolerance, benevolence, indulgence; it is the evangelical charity par excellence and
the application of the maxim: “To act to the others as we would like the others to act with us." The counter part is
Selfishness. Fraternity says: “each one for all and all for one”.”Selfishness says": each one for himself."
Being those two qualities the denial one of the other, it is so impossible to a selfish one to act brotherly, to their
fellow creatures, as it is for a greedy one to be generous, to a small man to reach a tall man's height.
Now, being selfishness the dominant curse of the society, while it reigns dominantly, the kingdom of the true
fraternity will be impossible; each one will want from fraternity to his own advantage, but will not want it to be for the
benefit of the others; or, if he does that, it will be after being safe that he will not lose anything.
Considered from the point of view of its importance for the accomplishment of the social happiness, fraternity is
in first line: it is the base; without it, it could not exist nor equality and nor serious freedom; equality elapses from
fraternity, and freedom is the consequence of the other two.
With effect, let us suppose a society of quite disinterested men, good and benevolent men to live, amongst
themselves, brotherly, there would not be between them nor privileges or exceptional rights, without what there would
not be fraternity there.
To treat somebody as a brother, it is to treat him equal for equal; it is to want for him that which he would want
for himself; in a people of brotherhood, equality will be the consequence of their feelings, in their way to act, and it will
settle down through the force of things.
But which is the enemy of equality? It is pride. Pride which, for the whole part, wants to excel and to dominate,
that lives from privileges and exceptions, can support the social equality, but it will never found it and it will destroy it
in a first occasion.
Now, being pride, it also, one of the curses of society, while it be not destroyed, it will oppose a barrier to the
true equality.
Freedom, we said, is daughter of fraternity and of equality; we spoke about the legal freedom and not of the
natural freedom that it is, for rights, imprescriptibly for every human creature, from the savage to the civilized man.
Living the men as brothers, with the same rights, animated of a reciprocal feeling of benevolence, they will practice
justice amongst themselves, they will never seek to harm each other, and they will not have, consequently, anything
to fear from each other.
Freedom will be without danger, because nobody will think of abusing of it in prejudicing their fellow creatures.
But as selfishness wants everything for itself, pride that always wants to dominate, would give hands to the freedom
which would dethrone them? The enemies of freedom are, thence, at the same time, selfishness and pride, as are of
equality and of fraternity.
Freedom supposes a mutual trust; now, it could not have trust among people moved by the exclusive feeling of
the personality; not being able to be satisfied except to the expenses of somebody else, continually, they are in guard
some against the others. Always with fear of losing what they call their rights, dominance is the very condition of their
existence, for that reason they will always arm ambushes to freedom, and they will suffocate it for as much time as
they can.
Those three principles are, then, as we have said, solidary some with the others and they are served mutually
of support; without its meeting, the social edifice could not be complete. Fraternity practiced in its purity could not be
alone, because without equality and freedom there is no true fraternity.
Freedom without fraternity gives freedom of action to all bad passions, which do not have brakes anymore; with
fraternity, the man does not make any bad use of his freedom: it is the order; without fraternity, he uses it to give
course to all his vileness: it is the anarchy, the license.
That is why the most freed nations are forced to make restrictions to general freedom. Equality without
fraternity leads to the same results, because equality wants freedom; under excuse of equality, the small pulls down
the great, to substitute him, and becomes himself a tyrant to his turn; that is not except a displacement of despotism.
It follows that, until men are imbued of the feeling of the true fraternity, it lacks to have them in servitude?
What are inappropriate to the institutions founded on the principles of equality and of freedom? Similar opinion
would be more than a mistake; it would be absurd. It is not expected that a child has had made all its growth
To make her walk. Who, in fact, does have her more frequently in protection? Are men of big and generous
ideas, being guided by the love to progress? Taking advantage of the submission of their inferiors, to develop in them
the moral sense, and to elevate them, little by little, to the condition of free men?

6
 No; they are, in most, jealous men of their power, to the ambition and the greed of the which other men serve
as instrument, more intelligent than animals, and that, for that effect, instead of emancipating them they have them,
the most possible time, under the yoke and in ignorance. But that order of things changes by itself through the
irresistible force of progress.
Reaction is, sometimes, violent and so much more terrible as the feeling of fraternity, imprudently stuffed, it
does not come to interpose a power moderator; the struggle settles down, among those who want to catch and those
who want to keep hold; thence a conflict that is prolonged, frequently, during centuries.
A factitious balance settles down finally; there is improvement; but it is felt that the social bases are not solid;
the soil shakes to each instant under the steps, because it is not, still, the kingdom of freedom and of equality under
the aegis of fraternity, because pride and selfishness are always there, taking to the failure the efforts of well faring
men.
All of you who dream about that age of gold for the Humanity, do work, before anything, at the base of the
edifice, before wanting to crown its ridge; give it as a base fraternity in its purer meaning; but, for that, it is not enough
to decree it and to inscribe it under a flag; it is necessary that it be in the heart and one does not change the men's
hearts with decrees.
In the same way that, to make a field to fructify, it is necessary to pull from it the stones and the bramble
bushes, work without rest to extirpate the virus of pride and of selfishness, because there it is the source of all evil, the
real obstacle to the kingdom of goodness; do destroy in laws, in institutions, in religions, in education, until the last
vestiges, the times of barbarism and of privileges, and all the causes that maintain and develop those eternal
obstacles to the true progress, that is received, so to speak, from childishness and that it is aspirated by all of the
pores in the social atmosphere; only then men will understand the duties and the benefits of fraternity; then, also, they
will settle down by themselves, without disturbances and without danger, the complemental principles of equality and
of freedom.
The destruction of selfishness and of pride is it possible? We have said high and daringly YES, in any other way
it would be necessary to put a suspension to the Humanity's progress. Man grows in intelligence, it is an incontestable
fact; it has arrived to the summit that could not out pass? Who would dare to sustain that absurd theory? Does he
progress in morality?
To answer this question, it is enough to compare the times of the same country. Why, then, it would have
reached the limit of the moral progress than the one of intellectual progress? Its aspiration, for a better order of things,
it is an indication of the possibility to arrive therein. To the progressive men it fits to activate the movement for the
study and for the practice of the most effective ways””
." * * * * *
May God be with us, as formerly, today and always!

7
While it is said that love builds, that love is tolerant, that love knows
how to forgive,9
That love does not keep bitterness that love seeks peace etc.
In opposite we can say that hate destroys, that hate is intolerant,
That hate does not forgive, that hate keeps bitterness,
And that hate does not have in itself peace.
And, of that life of social unstable state emotional,
In the turnings of social adjustments was born and died the habit of
duelling,
Which the understanding in the mutual love caused to be
extinguished off the Society,
For the better of the Society or of the people.
It is, certainly a testimony that man developed quite a lot morally,10
Although there are injustices parallel even worse than duelling,
However not for laws or rules, but for people possessors of Spirits
inferior,
Immoral, irreverent, revengeful and followers of their perverse
instincts;
Those are the true devils 11 that afflict and torment us, be them
incarnated or disincarnated.
Yes, duels nowadays we have them, however they are duels in
goodness,
They are duels of efforts in spiritist well understand 'make an effort';
Duels in the defense of everything that is good,
Duels against ignorance, superstition and cruelty,
Of fights against our inferiorities,
Against the difficulties of life, against the moral dissatisfactions,
Against the dissatisfactions and social inequalities,
Against the difficulties and inequalities in the health,
Against the difficulties and inequalities in education,
Fights for a better world with more justice,
Struggles for a personal improvement or for the family,
9
Extract from the study ‘O Duelo’, given at the Centro Espírita, Joana d’Arc, on 04/
08/ 2009.
10
Unceasing progress = inscription in the tomb of Allan Kardec, in Paris, - (see,
Posthumous Works. )
11
Allan Kardec, book, - ‘Heaven and Hell’, 9: 22.

8
 Then God helps us since He loves us and accompanies us and He
knows our efforts,
Once so it is of His Will since He created us' simple and ignorant',
In order that we may grow on our own step or rhythm,
And with our knowledge we can say in good faith: ’May his will be
done'
Fights or duels that might be are part of our world of Tests and
Atonements,
Of our evolutionary development, of our moral progress, spiritual or
intellectual,
Attracted towards our God Creator and Father.