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| OF 1 things unseene how canst thou deeme aright— | |
| Then answered the righteous Artegall— | |
| Sith thou misdeem’st so much of things in sight? | |
| What though the sea with waves continuall | |
| Doe eate the earth? it is no more at all: | 5 |
| Ne is the earth the lesse, or loseth ought: | |
| For whatsoever from one place doth fall | |
| Is with the tide unto another brought: | |
| For there is nothing lost, that may be found if sought. | |
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| Likewise the earth is not augmented more | 10 |
| By all that dying unto it doe fade; | |
| For of the earth they formed were of yore: | |
| However gay their blossome or their blade | |
| Doe flourish now, they into dust shall vade. | |
| What wrong then is it, if that when they die | 15 |
| They turne to that whereof they first were made? | |
| All in the powre of their great Maker lie: | |
| All creatures must obey the voice of the Most Hie. | |
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| They live, they die, like as He doth ordaine, | |
| Ne ever any asketh reason why. | 20 |
| The hils doe not the lowly dales disdaine; | |
| The dales doe not the lofty hils envy. | |
| He maketh kings to sit in soverainty; | |
| He maketh subiects to their powre obay; | |
| He pulleth downe, He setteth up on hy; | 25 |
| He gives to this, from that He takes away: | |
| For all we have is His: what He list doe, He may. | |
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| Whatever thing is done, by Him is done, | |
| Ne any may His mighty will withstand; | |
| Ne any may his soveraine power shonne, | 30 |
| Ne loose that He hath bound with stedfast band: | |
| In vaine therefore doest thou now take in hand | |
| To call to ’count, or weigh his workes anew, | |
| Whose counsel’s depth thou canst not understand; | |
| Sith of things subiect to thy daily vew | 35 |
| Thou doest not know the causes, nor their courses dew. | |
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| For take thy ballaunce, if thou be so wise, | |
| And weigh the winde that under heaven doth blow: | |
| Or weigh the light that in the East doth rise; | |
| Or weigh the thought that from man’s mind doth flow: | 40 |
| But if the weight of these thou canst not show, | |
| Weigh but one word which from thy lips doth fall: | |
| For how canst thou those greater secrets know, | |
| That doest not know the least thing of them all? | |
| Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small. | 45 |
