Thou great First cause, least understood,

Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that thou are good,

And that myself am blind.

What conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,

This teach me more than hell to shun,

That more than heaven pursue.

What blessings thy free bounty gives

Let me not cast away;

For God is paid when man receives -

To enjoy is to obey.

If I am right, thy grace impart

Sill in the right to stay;

If I am wrong, O teach my heart

To find a better way.

Save me alike from foolish pride

Or impious discontent,

At what thy wisdom has denied,

Or what they 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.

Mean though I am, not wholly so,

Since quickened by thy breath;
Oh lead me where so ever I go,

Through this day's life or death.

Excerpts from Alexander Pope's "Universal Prayer."