BOOK IV.
Hail, heav'n-born Peace ! primeval state of bliss, Conferr'd on Eden once, but then withdrawn, When the first pair essential Peace forsook, And each recriminative th' other charged With sin ; since then, stranger to earth, no more Dost thou revisit man till now, or but With casual ray, too soon extinguish'd In fraternal strife. I, thy dawning hail, More grateful to the heart than rosy light To Critheis' son, or him, who vainly Thee besought in Mantua's sweet retreat; Or, to Londinian bard, whose eye, though dimm'd, By error of paternal precept plunged In deeper darkness of the mind. Oh ! would That I, reversing his misstep, might some Atonement make, for that ungracious fault; And will, if nightly Muse aid me as well To sing Redemption won, as him the Fall. Not ye, do I implore, who aided him, Eased him in his descent, but could not raise Up to the Heights, to reinstate fall'n man. Not ye, Pierides, nor you, fair maids,
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