This is one of the vastest and mightiest of all Schubert's Goethe settings, rivaling even Prometheus in its size and scope. But where Prometheus vigorously defied the gods, Grenzen der Menschheit (The Limitations of Mankind) (D. 716) accepts and even embraces its fate. Written in March 1821, Grenzen der Menschheit is a miracle of song composition, setting Goethe's majestically humble poem as a song at once hymn and recitative and which is symphonic in its aspirations. The hymn-like accompaniment starts with the long piano prelude, a series of upbeat to massive chords that seem to hold all creation in their enormous modulations. This upbeat accompaniment continues throughout the song, sometimes blossoming into Schubert's favorite dactylic rhythm for passages of special intensity, and the harmonic universe it describes includes some of the grandest in all of Schubert. Yet this richness can all be related to the opening gesture, a modified plagal cadence of supreme faith. The recitative-like melody is huge in its height, depth, and width, challenging both the range and breath control. In a tempo indication of Nicht ganz langsam (Not altogether slowly), the melody can last as long as eight bars without a breath. In a range of nearly two octaves reaching down to the E two octaves below middle C, the melody can rise and fall as much as an octave and a half in a single phrase. But the form of Schubert's setting encompasses all this within a single aesthetic act of unparalleled grace and beauty. With each section growing out prior utterances, and with the entire narrative rounded off with a modified and rapturous return of the opening, Grenzen der Menschheit has the heavenly lengths of Schubert's greatest symphonies—the song lasts about eight minutes in performance—and, at the same time, the intense concentration of his best songs. Although Goethe's poem asserts that man cannot compare with God, surely in this song, Schubert has touched (or was touched by) the divine.

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