112

 112. The Elements  (A Tragic Chorus.)   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.

   At Sea .  June 25, 1833.