The Elements

"The Elements" 

John Henry Newman (1801-1890) 

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. 

IMAGE: Hendrik van Balen, The Four Elements (c. 1620)