O thou, my Lord Almighty, great and wise,
Wellseen for mighty works, and marvellous
To every mind that knows thee, Ever Good!
Wondrously well all creatures Thou hast made,
Unseen of us or seen; with softest band

Of skilful strength thy brighter beings leading,
Thou from its birth forth onward to its end
This middle earth by times hast measured out
As was most fit; that orderly they go

And eftsoon come again. Thou wisely stirrest
To thine own will thy changing unstill creatures,
Unchangeable and still thyself for ever!

No one is mightier, greater than Thou art,

No one was made thine equal: need was none,

Of all these works which thou hast wrought, to Thee;

But, at the willing of thy power, the world

And everything within it didst thou make,
Without all need to Thee of such great works,

Great is thy goodness,-think it out who will;
For it is all of one, in everything,

Thou and Thy good; thine own; not from without,

Neither did any goodness come to Thee:

But, well I know, thy goodness is Most Good
All with thyself: unlike to us in kind;

To us, from outwardly, from God himself,
Came all we have of good in this low earth.
Thou canst not envy any; since to Thee
Nothing is like, nor any higher skilled;

For thou, All good, of thine own thought didst think,
And then that thought didst work. Before Thee none
Was born, to make or unmake anything,

But Thou without a model madest all,

Lord God of men, Almighty, very good,

Being thyself of all the Highest good!
Thou, Holy Father, thou, the Lord of hosts,
After thy will, and by thy power alone,

The world, this midway garden, didst create;
And by thy will, as now thy wisdom would,
Wieldest it all! For thou, O God of truth,
Long time of old didst deal out all good things,
Making thy creatures mainly well alike,

Yet not alike in all ways; and didst name
With one name all together all things here,
"The World under the clouds." Yet, God of glory,
That one name, Father, thou didst turn to four:
The first, this Earth-field; and the second, water;
Shares of the world: third, fire, and fourth, air:
This is again the whole world all together.
Yet have these four each one his stead and stool,
Each hath its place; tho' much with other mixt;
Fast by thy might, Almighty Father, bound,
Biding at peace, and softly well together
By thy behest, kind Father! so that none
Durst overstep its mark, for fear of Thee,
But willing thanes and warriors of their King
Live well together, howsoever strive

The wet with dry, the chilly with the hot.
Water and Earth, both cold in kind, breed fruits :
Water lies wet and cold around the field.
With the green earth is mingled the cold air,
Dwelling in middle place: it is no wonder
That it be warm and cold, blent by the winds,
This wide wet tier of clouds; for, in my judgment,
Air hath a midway place, 'twixt earth and fire:
All know that fire is uppermost of all

Over this earth, and ground is nethermost.
Yet is this wonderful, O Lord of Hosts,

Which by thy thought thou workest, that distinctly
Thou to thy creatures settest mark and bound
And dost not mingle them the wet cold water
Thou fixest it the fast earth for a floor,
For that itself, unstill and weak and soft
Alone would widely wander everywhere,