How could it fail to have been employed by religious writers, when the outline of the allegory is supplied by the Holy Scriptures? In the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Christian life is represented as a pilgrimage to a better, a heavenly country; and, in the following chapter, we have the heavenly city magnificently described. Surely we need look no further for the origin of Bunyan's allegory, as regards the main idea of the parable. But the felicity with which he has dramatised the progress of the Christian pilgrim, is peculiar to himself; and Dr. Southey sums up his examination of the works to which it has been thought to bear the strongest appearance of resemblance, with the candid and decisive conclusion, that "if ever there was a work which carried with it the stamp of originality in all its parts, it is that of John Bunyan."

Did its Author's claim to originality rest upon this work alone, his fame would even then be safe; but, in his Holy War, Bunyan has displayed even superior power of invention; and if his "Life and Death of Mr. Badman" has not been as generally read, it is, in the opinion of Dr. Southey, whom we cite as an impartial judge, "because the subject is less agreeable, not that it has been treated with inferior ability."

the Wandering Knight, by Jean de Cartheray, a French Carmelite, of which a translation was printed in this country in the reign of Elizabeth; but there is only a vague general resemblance in the subject, and some occasional similarity in the details. The Pilgrimage of Dovekin and Willekin to their Beloved in Jerusalem, originally published in Dutch, at Antwerp, in 1627, has also been absurdly supposed to have been the original of the Pilgrim's Progress. Dr. Southey has triumphantly exposed the groundless nature of this supposition: the works have nothing in common. Dean Patrick's "Parable of the Pilgrim," 1663, comes nearer to Bunyan's work in some points of general resemblance; but it is a treatise rather than an allegory, and the author, disclaiming all pretension to fancy or invention, states, that he took the idea from a discourse so entitled in Baker's "Sancta Sophia." Bernard's "Isle of Man, or the Legal Proceedings in Man-shire against Sin," a popular book in Bunyan's time, is more likely to have been seen by him, and to have had some effect upon his style; but it wants the charm of story, and has nothing of the romantic interest of Bunyan's parable.

"Little less popular" than the Pilgrim's Progress, and, whether viewed as a theological work or as an allegory, of at least equal merit, the Holy War fails to excite the same romantic kind of interest, chiefly because we sympathise less strongly with the personifications of the drama; conscious that, instead of being led through the vivid scenery of a dream, which is the shadow of waking realities, we are only looking at the well-constructed machinery of a fable. We feel to be conversing with abstractions, and never forget the allegory. One principal reason why the Pilgrim's Progress is the most delightful thing of the kind in the world, Mr. Montgomery observes, is "that though the whole is written under the similitude of a dream, there is very little of pure allegory in it; and few abstract qualities or passions are personified. . . . . If ever allegorical characters excite either sympathy or affection, it is when we forget that they are allegorical; consequently, when the allegory is suspended with respect to them." In reading the Pilgrim's Progress, we so constantly identify the author with his hero, as to find it difficult to separate them in our feelings; and the allegorical meaning seems superinduced upon the story, which flows on with so much of the semblance of real life. The pilgrim not only seems a real character, but gives reality to the emblematic phantoms with which he is associated; and the mind of the reader undergoes a sort of deception similar to that which is produced upon the waking eye by a peculiar affection of the brain, the subject of which sees spectral forms blending with living figures, and is unable to discriminate between the substantial and the unreal.

It may be suspected, indeed, that in the subordinate personages of the allegory, Bunyan had real characters* so far in

"We may be sure," remarks Dr. Southey," that Mr. Valiant-for-theTruth, Old Honest, of the town of Stupidity, Mr. Despondency, and his daughter Much-Afraid, and their companions, were well known in Bishop Bunyan's diocese ;' and if no real characters were designed by him in those who are less favourably introduced as turning back on their journey, striking into by-paths, or slumbering by the way, likenesses would be discovered where none were intended."

view, that the ideal was, as it were, modelled upon a portrait. In all the variety of characters which he brings before us, there is an individuality stamped upon them, by which they may be identified. But the biographical unity is as truly preserved by the prominence given to the principal actor, as in the classical epic. Christian is the Ulysses of the story. And this unity of interest results from the Author's simplicity of purpose, which led him steadily to keep in view his main design. Hence, the allegory, if defective or inconsistent in parts, (for which the Author has provided a sufficient apology in styling it a dream, for in dreams we are not conscious of such discrepancies,) is perfectly adapted, as Mr. Montgomery remarks, to the purpose for which it was composed. This was, "to show the particular experience of one Christian traveller, whose peculiar temptations and conflicts are general examples of what converted sinners must expect to encounter, though not all in the same degree, nor indeed all the same in kind. Christian, therefore, may be considered as a whole-length portrait of the Author himself; while the secondary characters, more or less curtailed, show the variety which is found in religious societies.".... “The Pilgrim's Progress is the history of one man's experience in full, and the experience of many others in part; wherefore, though the plan may be defective with regard to the multitude, all of whom are absolutely subordinate to the hero, Christian, with regard to him it is perfect, consistent, and satisfactory throughout. This was all that the Author primarily proposed; and whatever went beyond this, fell in his way, rather than belonged to his actual design. The unity of the plot, in the personal adventures of Christian, is not broken, but embellished and enriched by the incidental or episodical characters with which he becomes acquainted by the way."

Mr. Montgomery has pointed out a remarkable instance of the consummate yet artless skill which Bunyan has in this respect displayed, in the introduction of a companion to Christian, by which the interest of the narrative is rein

forced without being divided. "The individual experience of one man," remarks this accomplished critic, "would not have been sufficient to exemplify all the most useful lessons of the Gospel, unless the trials of many persons, of different age, sex, and disposition, were interwoven. Christian could not both have suffered martyrdom in Vanity Fair, and travelled the remainder of his journey to the Celestial City; yet, in the days of John Bunyan, (who had himself been most cruelly persecuted for righteousness' sake,) it was necessary to set the precedent of a confessor who was ready, not to be bound only, but to die for the Lord Jesus. This has been done in the case of Faithful, who seals his testimony with his blood, while Christian, in a manner not explained, (which, however, is no flaw in the plot, having been advisedly adopted,) escapes for this time,' and, being joined by Hopeful, a convert raised up by the death of Faithful, proceeds on his way."

The Second Part of the Pilgrim's Progress, if it does not excite so intense an interest, is not less delightful than the first. It is even richer in incident; and the Author has shown the fertility of his invention, in the novelty which he has thrown into the journey over the same ground, so that nothing is repeated, but what is pleasing in the repetition, from the combined effect of reminiscence and contrast. In the pilgrimage of Christian and his successive companions, it appears to have been his design, Mr. Montgomery remarks, to portray the personal and solitary experience of the individual believer, or only the bosom fellowship between two Christian friends. "In the journey of Christiana and her family, gradually increasing to a goodly troop, he seems to have had more in view to illustrate the communion of saints and the advantages of church-membership. It is delightful to travel in such company, and hear them not only tell their several histories, but discourse of the adventures of others who have gone before; so that to the last stage, in the Enchanted Ground, when they find Standfast on his knees, there is a perpetual change of captivating anecdote and biography Among the characters

which so eminently enliven and adorn the Second Part of the Pilgrim's Progress, Mercy is the most lovely; and though of the utmost simplicity, it would be difficult, among the most finished portraits of womanly excellence by our first poets, to parallel this in delicacy and truth of drawing and colouring." In the attempt to imbody in an imaginary portrait, the personification of feminine virtue, some of the greatest of our poets have failed; and when we consider the circumstances of Bunyan's early history, his success in this instance must be viewed as a remarkable proof of the tendency of religion to purify and refine the taste. But here again the Bible was both his model and the source of his inspiration; and Mercy might almost pass for a scriptural character. It has been remarked, that the allegory is not so perfect in the Second Part, the pilgrimage of Christiana and her family appearing to occupy as many years as that of her husband did weeks; for those who are children at their setting out, are grown up and married by the time they reach the half-way house of Gaius. But these incongruities, which are regarded as a pardonable license in the dramatist, cannot be fairly imputed to want of skill in our "ingenious dreamer." Bunyan's purpose was to convey instruction; and to this, his main end, he would have sacrificed all the unities. But, upon the whole, the allegory is very skilfully maintained. It may be questioned whether Bunyan himself would have succeeded in a Third Part.

But let us now turn from the Author's parable to the prototype in the history of his own experience, of which he has left a narrative that forms one of the most interesting pieces of religious autobiography in any language. In common with all productions of the kind, where the sincerity of the writer is above suspicion, it requires to be taken as a transcript of the writer's feelings and impressions, rather than as a literal and accurate history. There is always a generous exaggeration in the disclosures of true penitence, for which allowance must be made; and in the description of the interior phenomena of a mental conflict,