FATHER of all! in ev’ry age, | |
| In ev’ry clime ador’d, | |
| By saint, by savage, and by sage, | |
| Jehovah, Jove, or Lord! | |
| |
| Thou Great First Cause, least understood, | 5 |
| Who all my sense confin’d | |
| To know but this, that thou art good, | |
| And that myself am blind: | |
| |
| Yet gave me, in this dark estate, | |
| To see the good from ill; | 10 |
| And binding Nature fast in Fate, | |
| Left free the human Will. | |
| |
| What Conscience dictates to be done, | |
| Or warns me not to do; | |
| This teach me more than Hell to shun, | 15 |
| That more than Heav’n pursue. | |
| |
| What blessings thy free bounty gives | |
| Let me not cast away; | |
| For God is paid when man receives; | |
| T’ enjoy is to obey. | 20 |
| |
| Yet not to earth’s contracted span | |
| Thy goodness let me bound, | |
| Or think thee Lord alone of man, | |
| When thousand worlds are round. | |
| |
| Let not this weak unknowing hand | 25 |
| Presume thy bolts to throw, | |
| And deal damnation round the land | |
| On each I judge thy foe. | |
| |
| If I am right, thy grace impart, | |
| Still in the right to stay; | 30 |
| If I am wrong, O teach my heart | |
| To find that better way. | |
| |
| Save me alike from foolish Pride | |
| Or impious Discontent, | |
| At aught thy wisdom has denied, | 35 |
| Or aught thy goodness lent. | |
| |
| Teach me to feel another’s woe, | |
| To hide the fault I see: | |
| That mercy I to others show, | |
| That mercy show to me. | 40 |
| |
| Mean tho’ I am, not wholly so, | |
| Since quicken’d by thy breath; | |
| O lead me, whereso’er I go, | |
| Thro’ this day’s life or death! | |
| |
| This day be bread and peace my lot: | 45 |
| All else beneath the sun | |
| Thou know’st if best bestow’d or not, | |
| And let thy will be done. | |
| |
| To Thee, whose temple is all Space, | |
| Whose altar earth, sea, skies, | 50 |
| One chorus let all Being raise, | |
| All Nature’s incense rise! | |
| |
