74 LINES ON PORTRAIT OF BUNYAN. Encompass'd, and with horrid phantoms rife ; To martyr'd FAITHFUL gave the Crown of endless Life! Thence, on with Christian, and his HOPEFUL peer, TO BEULAH'S SUNNY PLAINS, where sweetly blend Where that BRIGHT CITY basks in glory's sunless blaze! To such celestial visions can give birth, For few may boast a juster, prouder claim Than thine, whose labours blending harmless mirth Have from the wise and good won honourable Fame. And still for marvelling Childhood, blooming Youth, Richly adorn thy allegoric page, Pointing the warfare Christians yet must wage, Of the rough path thy holy Travellers trod, The PILGRIM'S PROGRESS marks to glory, and to God! BERNARD BARTON. 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. BY JOHN BUNYAN. "I HAVE USED SIMILITUDES."-HOSEA, c. XH. v. 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, In more than twenty things, which I set down : Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly. Well, so I did; but yet I did not think Neither did I but vacant seasons spend But to divert myself, in doing this, From worser thoughts, which make me do amiss. Still as I pull'd, it came; and so I penn'd It down; until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see. I show'd them others, that I might see whether And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die ; For, thought I, some I see would have it done, I further thought, if now I did deny If that thou wilt not read, let it alone; In such a method too, and yet not miss My end, thy good? Why may it not be done? 1 |