'll disjoint,
And, mocking, new ones of our own appoint:
Devouring War, imprison'd in the north,
Shall at our call in horrid pomp break forth;
And when, his chariot wheels with thunder hung,
Fell Discord braying with her brazen tongue,
Death in the van, with Anger, Hate, and Fear,
And Desolation stalking in the rear,
Revenge, by Justice guided, in his train,
He drives inpet'ous o'er the trembling plain,
Shall at our bidding quit his lawful prey,
And to meek, gentle, gen'rous Peace give way.
"'Think not, my sons! that this so bless'd estate
Stands at a distance on the roll of Fate;
Already big with hopes of future sway,
Ev'n from this cave I scent my destin'd prey.
Think not that this dominion o'er a race,
Whose former deeds shall Time's last annals grace,
In the rough face of peril must be sought,
And with the lives of thousands dearly bought:
No--fool'd by cunning, by that happy art
Which laughs to scorn the blund'ring hero's heart,
Into the snare shall our kind neighbours fall,
With open eyes, and fondly give us all."

Alongside of any one of the masterpieces of Dryden or Pope, this, perhaps
the most vigorous thing of Churchill's, is seen to be a daub. Yet Cockney
connoisseurs still think it a fine picture. When fresh from the easel, it
was thus praised by a metropolitan critic:--

"You'll own the great Churchill possesses, I hope,
More fancy than Cowley, more numbers than Pope;
More strength, too, than Dryden--for, think on what's past,
He has not only rivall'd, but beat them at last."

A hearty national prejudice is no bad foundation for a Poem. It implies
one great requisite of success--a secure large sympathy. This "trusted
home" animates the poet; and a reception, answering to the confidence,
awaits the work. Moreover, ungrounded or exaggerated as these
depreciations and antipathies are likely to be, they usually spring out of
some deep-laid element in the character of those who entertain them, and
have thus the vital warmth and strength that feed poetry, and an original
truth of nature mixed up amongst fallacies of opinion. Caricatured
representation is the proper vehicle. For Censure is then half disarmed,
when to her exception, "This is not so," the reply lies upon the face of
the performance, "Neither is it offered for true." The hyperbole of the
phrase covers the distortion of the thinking. If we are to find fault with
Churchill's "Prophecy of