298. ~faery~. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. _faerie_ than
the current form.
299. ~the element~; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher
Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the
four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means
'the air.' Comp. _Hen. V._ iv. 1. 107, "The _element_ shows him as it
doth to me"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 490, "the louring _element_ Scowls o'er
the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc.
301. ~plighted~, interwoven or _plaited_. The verb 'plight' (or more
properly _plite_) is a variant of _plait_: see _Il Pens._ 57, "her
sweetest saddest _plight_." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l.
372. ~awe-strook~. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz.
'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.'
302. ~worshiped~. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before
_-ed_.
303. ~were~ = would be: subjunctive. ~like the path to Heaven~; _i.e._ it
would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the
Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (_Matt._
vii.) as in _Son._ ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth."
304. ~help you find~: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used
without _to_ where _to_ would now be inserted. This omission of the
preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the
sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the
infinitive was the termination _en_ (_e.g._ he can _speken_). The
infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund,
which was preceded by the preposition _to_, and when this became
confused with the simple infinitive the use of _to_ became general.
Comp. _Son._ xx. 4, "_Help_ waste a sullen day."