This was the mental process that we saw at work in his _French Revolution_ and _America_. Now it was moving among the persons and things connected with his own life; but it is not less important, for the same mighty agencies govern individuals and nations alike, and link them up together, so that they are interchangeable manifestations of eternal laws and states. The practical outcome was _Milton_, _Jerusalem_, and a revision of _The Four Zoas_, begun some time about 1795. These claim our close attention, for they contain, for those who have patience to probe their forbidding exterior, the treasure of one who had run the road of excess, not of profligacy but rebellion, and now reached the palace of wisdom. On April 25th, 1803, Blake wrote to Thomas Butts: "I have written this poem (_Milton_) from immediate dictation." Later in the same year (July 6th), he writes: "I can praise it, since I dare not pretend to be any other than the secretary; the authors are in Eternity. I consider it the grandest Poem that this world contains. Allegory addressed to the intellectual powers, while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal understanding, is my definition of the most sublime Poetry." In the Preface to _Milton_ Blake asserts, in effect, that Shakespeare and Milton were shackled by the Daughters of Memory, who must become the Daughters of Inspiration before work of the highest creative order can be produced. Here he regards Memory as a hindrance, and comparing the Preface with the above quotations, we learn that he strove to put Memory aside while the authors in Eternity were dictating to him. But in the _Jerusalem_ there are, scattered throughout, references to what he calls the Halls of Los, familiar to readers of mystical literature as the Akashic or Etheric records, and called by Yeats the great Memory. "All things acted on Earth are seen in the bright Sculptures of Los's Halls, and every Age renews its powers from these Works."[4] Here Memory serves to renew an age, and then becomes the recipient of the age's inspired works.