Page:A Key to the Lock. Or, A Treatise Proving, Beyond All Contradiction, the Dangerous Tendency of a Late Poem, Entituled, The Rape of the Lock, to Government and Religion - Pope (1715).djvu/28

And now, as oft in some distemper'd State,
On one nice Trick depends the gen'ral Fate.

After the Conclusion of the War, the publick Rejoicings and Thanksgivings are ridiculed in the two following Lines.

The Nymph exalting fills with Shouts the Sky,
The Walls, the Woods, and long Canals reply.

Immediately upon which there follows a malicious Insinuation, in the manner of a Prophecy (which we have formerly observ'd this seditious Writer delights in) that the Peace should continue but a short time, and that the Day should afterwards be curst which was then celebrated with so much Joy.

Sudden these Honours shall be snatch'd away,
And curst for ever this Victorious Day.

As the Game at Ombre is a satyrical Representation of the late War; so is the Tea-Table that ensues, of the Council-Table and its Consultations after the Peace. By this he would hint, that all the Advantages we have gain'd by our late extended Commerce, are only Cof-fee