Note 4 — Chapter I

Duelling might be classified theoretically as a survival of the wolfish condition sketched in § 5. But the persistent institution of single combat should not be regarded as in itself a survival, but rather as an outlet for the surviving instinct, a concession justified by political or social considerations that vary from age to age. Even Plato in his Republic (465 A) agreed that the citizen might in certain circumstances take the law into his own hands, probably regarding such action as a sort of equity, what Aristotle calls επανὁρθωμα νὁμου ἡ ελλεἱπει δια τοὑ καθὁλου, a rectification of certain special cases not covered by law.

In modern states again, e.g. in Austria and Germany, duelling is not so much a survival as a corollary of militarism, which involves a fetichistic veneration of the military uniform or of military "honour."