translated." The idiom of the work, however, is so purely and peculiarly English, that it must be next to impossible to preserve its genuine character in a foreign dress." The fervour of the Poet's soul," remarks the American Critic before cited, (nor is the descriptive appellation a misnomer,) "acting through the medium of such a language as he learned from our common translation of the Scriptures, has produced some of the most admirable specimens in existence of the manly power and familiar beauty of the English tongue!" Pages might be occupied with the encomiums with which poets and critics have of late delighted to honour this once obscure and despised religious writer. Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth, besides Southey and Montgomery, have re-echoed the tribute of admiration and affectionate sympathy, which Cowper was the first that ventured to offer to his memory, suppressing the as yet uncanonized name. I name thee not, Yet e'en in transitory life's late day, That mingles all my brown with sober grey, THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS FROM THIS WORLD TO THAT WHICH IS TO COME. DELIVERED UNDER THE SIMILITUDE OF A DREAM. PART I. WHEREIN ARE DISCOVERED THE MANNER OF HIS SETTING OUT; HIS DANGEROUS JOURNEY; AND SAFE ARRIVAL AT THE DESIRED COUNTRY. · I have used similitudes," Hos. xii. 10. THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK. WHEN at the first I took my pen in hand, And thus it was: I, writing of the way About their journey, and the way to glory, Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly. Well, so I did; but yet I did not think |