Solomon set it) and set on a pavement of stone."

"Solomon!

Alas, Solomon is nobody now! This Woman is wiser in her own conceits than seven men that can render a reason. Now the court of the Sabbath must be turned to the use of the King of Assyria!" This was bold language, at the time; for it was intelligible then. It is so still to those who know the King, and Gunning, and Sheldon, well. Bunyan, however, seldom shot mystical arrows at "high places."

There is, perhaps, no conceit of his more amusing than the defenses of EARGATE, when Mansoul was summoned to surrender by Boanerges. The Town had planted over Eargate two great-guns, the one called High-mind, and the other Heady. They were cast by one Mr. Puff-up, Diabolus's own founder, in the castle; and mischievous pieces they were! Old Mr. Prejudice (an angry and ill-conditioned fellow) was made Captain of the ward of that gate, and sixty men, called Deaf Men were put under him: men advantageous to that service, inasmuch they mattered not what either captains or soldiers said!-Holy War, p. 74.

The Prefaces, as well as the Titles, of Books, were often whimsical in Bunyan's day but the only odd one of his, that I recollect, is that to his Treatise on the Water of Life; and it, although odd, is striking. "Courteous Reader, thou mayest, if thou wilt, call this Book, Bunyan's Bill of his Master's Water of Life.' True; I have not set forth, at large, the excellent nature and quality thereof: nor can that be done by the pen or tongue of men or angels. But as men in their Bills, for the conviction of readers, do give an account to the Country of the persons cured by liquors and preparations made for that end, so could I, were it not done already to my hand by Holy Writ. Many of the Cured, indeed, are removed from hence, and live where they cannot be spoken with as yet; but abundance of them remain here, and have their abode with men. If thou

wouldst drink of this water, drink it by itself. And that thou mayest not be deceived by the counterfeit, know that the true is clear as crystal.' I know that there are many Mountebanks in the world, and every one of them pretends to have this water to sell. But my advice is,-go directly to the Throne" from whence it proceeds.-Works, vol. ii., p. 1172. The Treatise did not need a Preface of this kind; but it admitted of such a one: for he acknowledged that he has allegorized, in that Work. He meant by Allegory, in it, however, such comparisons as the following: "This is the wholesomest water in the world. You may take it at the third, sixth, ninth, or eleventh hour; but to take it in the morning of your age is best; for then diseases have not so great a head."-P. 1200. "Epsom, Tunbridge, and Bath waters, may be common; but they are a great way off: yet those who are loth to die make provision to have their dwellings by those waters."-Pp. 1177, 1204. “He that stands on the banks of the River of Life, and washeth his cyes with the water, may see the stars of God; as in fair waters, a man may see the very body of the heavens."-P. 1197. "The Water is sometimes muddied by false glosses and sluttish opinions. This is apparent enough by the very hue of some poor souls. The very stain of Tradition may be seen in their scales. For as the Fish of the river receive the changeable colors of the waters, so Professors look like the doctrines they drink. If their doctrines are muddy, their notions are muddy. If their doctrines are bloody, their tempers are bloody."-P. 1197. "Art thou a fish, man? Art thou a fish? Canst thou live in the River of the water of life? Is grace thy proper element? I know there are some things besides fish, that can make a shift to live in the water. But not in the water only. The frog and the otter can live in it, but not in it only. Give some men grace and sin, grace and the world, and they will make a pretty good shift to live: but, hold them to grace only,―put them into

the River, and let them have nothing but river, and they die!" —Works, vol. ii., p. 1179. This, if not allegory, is something better.

Bunyan can be odd and awful; singular and solemn, at the same time. "A Christian bridles his lusts: but it is no strange. thing to see Professors bridled and saddled, yea ridden by the very Devil from lust to sin, and from one vanity to another.". Vol. iv., p. 2154. "There is a profession that stands with an unsanctified heart and life: but the sin of such will overpoise their salvation. The sin-end being the heaviest end of the scale, they tilt over into perdition, notwithstanding their glorious profession."-P. 2151. "Sirs, give me leave to set my Trumpet to your ears a little. A prating tongue will not unlock the gates of heaven, nor blind the eyes of the judge. Look to it! Covetous Professor, that usest religion to bring grist to thy mill,-look to it! Christian, take heed that no sin in thy life goes unrepented of. That will make a flaw in thy evidencesa wound in thy conscience-a breach in thy peace; and, a hundred to one, if it do not drive all the grace in thee into so dark a corner of thy heart, that thou shalt not be able for a time to find it out for thy comfort, even by all the torches that are burning in the Gospel."-P. 2180.

Some of these hints and illustrations are anything but conceits. The form of them is singular, but the spirit of them is both philosophical and heart-searching. I have introduced them in this Chapter, however, in order to show the cast of Bunyan's mind. He is never odd, for peculiarity; nor whimsical, from levity. vulgar, he is either not at all aware of it, or it is in order to "gain" the vulgar. When he puns, it is to point a maxim, not to win a smile. He stoops, only to conquer. He himself knew well both his modes and motives, and sung,

the sake of mere Even when he is