Man is permitted much 
 To scan and learn 
 In Nature's frame; 
 Till he well-nigh can tame 
 Brute mischiefs and can touch 
 Invisible things, and turn 
All warring ills to purposes of good. 
 Thus, as a god below, 
 He can control, 
And harmonize, what seems amiss to flow 
 As sever'd from the whole 
 And dimly understood. 

 But o'er the elements 
 One Hand alone, 
 One Hand has sway. 
 What influence day by day 
 In straiter belt prevents 
 The impious Ocean, thrown 
Alternate o'er the ever-sounding shore? 
 Or who has eye to trace 
 How the Plague came? 
Forerun the doublings of the Tempest's race? 
 Or the Air's weight and flame 
 On a set scale explore? 

 Thus God has will'd 
That man, when fully skill'd, 
Still gropes in twilight dim; 
Encompass'd all his hours 
 By fearfullest powers 
 Inflexible to him. 
That so he may discern 
 His feebleness. 
And e'en for earth's success 
 To him in wisdom turn, 
Who holds for us the keys of either home, 
Earth and the world to come.