es of this life, there are nevertheless a few who
aspire,' etc. _Be_ is here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in
Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp.
_Lines on Univ. Carrier_, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase,
"there be that say 't": also lines 519, 668. It is employed to refer to
a number of persons or things, regarded as a class. ~by due steps~,
_i.e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il
Pens._ 155. _Due_, _duty_, and _debt_ are all from Lat. _debitus_, owed.

13. ~their just hands~. 'Just' belongs to the predicate: 'to lay their
just hands' = to lay their hands with justice. ~golden key~. Comp. _Matt._
xvi. 19, "I will give unto thee the _keys_ of the kingdom of heaven";
also _Lyc._ 111:

"Two massy keys he bore of metals twain
(The _golden_ opes, the iron shuts amain)."

15. ~errand~: comp. _Par. Lost_, iii. 652, "One of the seven Who in God's
presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his
eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his
swift _errands_": also vii. 579. ~but for such~, _i.e._ unless it were for
such.

16. 'I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the
noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.' ~ambrosial~, heavenly; also
used by Milton in the sense of 'conferring immortality': comp. l. 840;
_Par. Lost_, ii. 245; iv. 219, "blooming _ambrosial_ fruit."
'Ambrosial,' like 'amaranthus' (_Lyc._ 149), is cognate with the
Sanskrit _amrita_, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the
gods: similarly in Tennyson's _Oenone_, 174: see also _In Memoriam_,
lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (_Neptune's Triumph_) has 'ambrosian hands,' _i.e._
hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. ~weeds~: now
used chiefly in the phrase "widow's weeds," _i.e._ mourning garment.
Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or
covering: in the lines _On the Death of a Fair Infant_, it is applied to
the human body itself; comp. also _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 255, "_Weed_ wide
enough to wrap a fairy in." See also _Comus_, 189, 390.

18. ~But to my task~, _i.e._ but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012.

19. ~every ... each~. It is usual to write _every ... every_, or _each ...
each_, but Milton occasionally uses 'every' and 'each' together: comp.
l. 311 and _Lyc._ 93, "_every_ gust ... off _each_ beaked promontory."
_Every_ denotes each without exception, and can