Thou that hast thy palace far Above the moon and every star; Thou that sittest on a throne To which the night was never known, Regard my voice, and make me blest By kindly granting its request. If thoughts on thee my soul employ, My darkness will afford me joy, Till thou shalt call and I shall soar, And part with darkness evermore. Many long and elaborate religious poems I have not even mentioned, because I cannot favour extracts, especially in heroic couplets or blank verse. They would only make my book heavy, and destroy the song-idea. I must here pass by one of the best of such poems, _The Complaint, or Night Thoughts_ of Dr. Young; nor is there anything else of his I care to quote. I must give just one poem of Pope, born in 1688, the year of the Revolution. The flamboyant style of his _Messiah_ is to me detestable: nothing can be more unlike the simplicity of Christianity. All such, equally with those by whatever hand that would be religious by being miserable, I reject at once, along with all that are merely commonplace religious exercises. But this at least is very unlike the rest of Pope's compositions: it is as simple in utterance as it is large in scope and practical in bearing. The name _Jove_ may be unpleasant to some ears: it is to mine--not because it is the name given to their deity by men who had had little outward revelation, but because of the associations which the wanton poets, not the good philosophers, have gathered about it. Here let it stand, as Pope meant it, for one of the names of the Unknown God. THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. Father of all! in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord! Thou great First Cause, least understood! Who all my sense confined 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; 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, 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. 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 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; 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, 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.