ough another;
Man may be strong without maiming his brother."

"But enemies?"

"Enemies! Whence should they come,
When all interchange what was known but to some?"

"But famine? but plague? worse evils by far."

"O last mighty rhet'ric to charm us to war!
Look round--what has earth, now it equably speeds,
To do with these foul and calamitous needs?
Now it equably speeds, and thoughtfully glows,
And its heart is open, never to close?

[Illustration:

AND SO, LIKE THE TOOL OF A DISUS'D ART,
HE STOOD AT HIS WALL, AND RUSTED APART.
_Canto_ VI. _p. 44._]

"Still I can govern," said Captain Sword;
"Fate I respect; and I stick to my word."
And in truth so he did; but the word was one
He had sworn to all vanities under the sun,
To do, for their conq'rors, the least could be done.
Besides, what had _he_ with his worn-out story,
To do with the cause he had wrong'd, and the glory?

No: Captain Sword a sword was still,
He could not unteach his lordly will;
He could not attemper his single thought;
It might not be bent, nor newly wrought:
And so, like the tool of a disus'd art,
He stood at his wall, and rusted apart.

'Twas only for many-soul'd Captain Pen
To make a world of swordless men.

POSTSCRIPT;

CONTAINING SOME REMARKS ON WAR AND MILITARY STATESMEN.

POSTSCRIPT;

CONTAINING SOME REMARKS ON WAR AND MILITARY STATESMEN.

The object of this poem is to show the horrors of war, the false ideas
of power produced in the minds of its leaders, and, by inference, the
unfitness of those leaders for the government of the world.

The author intends no more offence to any one than can be helped: he
feels due admiration for that courage and energy, the supposed
misdirection of which it deplores; he heartily acknowledges the
probability, that that supposed misdirection has been hitherto no
misdirection, but a necessity--but he believes that the time is come
when, by encouraging the disposition to question it, its services and
its sufferings may be no longer required, and he would fain tear asunder
the veil from the sore places of war,--would show what has been hitherto
kept concealed, or