| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: society.
In their absence the poet spent solitary hours conning over as
many lines of the great poem as his memory could store, until one
of his friends arrived, and relieved him by taking the staazas
down. Frequently his nephew, Edward Philips, performed this task
for him. To him Milton was in the habit of showing his work as
it advanced, and Philips states he found it frequently required
correction in orthography and punctuation, by reason of the
various hands which had written it. As summer advanced, he was
no longer favoured by a sight of the poem; inquiring the reason
of which, Milton told him "his vein never happily flowed but from
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: XLVIII
David was beaten; most tragic defeat of all, beaten by those he
had loved and faithfully served.
He did not rise on Christmas morning, and Dick, visiting him after
an almost untasted breakfast, found him still in his bed and
questioned him anxiously.
"I'm all right," he asserted. "I'm tired, Dick, that's all. Tired
of fighting. You're young. You can carry it on, and win. But I'll
never see it. They're stronger than we are."
Later he elaborated on that. He had kept the faith. He had run
with courage the race that was set before him. He had stayed up
The Breaking Point |
