Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

74

LINES ON PORTRAIT OF BUNYAN.

Encompass'd, and with horrid phantoms rife ;
The TOWN OF VANITY, where bigot spite,
Ever with Christian Pilgrimage at strife,

To martyr'd FAITHFUL gave the Crown of endless Life!

Thence, on with Christian, and his HOPEFUL peer,
TO DOUBTING CASTLE'S dungeons I descend;
The KEY OF PROMISE opes those vaults of fear;-
And now o'er HILLS DELECTABLE I wend

TO BEULAH'S SUNNY PLAINS, where sweetly blend
Of flowers, and fruits, and song a blissful maze;
"Till at the BRIDGELESS STREAM my course I end,
Eying the farther shore with rapture's gaze,

Where that BRIGHT CITY basks in glory's sunless blaze!
Immortal Dreamer! while thy magic page

To such celestial visions can give birth,
Well may this Portraiture our love engage,
Which gives, with grace congenial to thy worth,
The form thy living features wore on earth :

For few may boast a juster, prouder claim

Than thine, whose labours blending harmless mirth
With sagest counsel's higher, holier aim,

Have from the wise and good won honourable Fame.

And still for marvelling Childhood, blooming Youth,
Ripe Manhood, silver-tress'd and serious Age,-
Ingenious Fancy, and instructive Truth

Richly adorn thy allegoric page,

Pointing the warfare Christians yet must wage,
Who wish to journey on that heavenly road;
And tracing clearly each successive stage

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,
Thus for to write, I did not understand
That I at all should make a little book
In such a mode: Nay, I had undertook
To make another; which when almost done,
Before I was aware, I this begun.

And thus it was: I, writing of the way
And race of saints in this our gospel-day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory

About their journey, and the way to glory,

In more than twenty things, which I set down :
This done, I twenty more had in my crown;
And they again began to multiply,

Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast,
I'll put you by yourselves, lest you at last
Should prove ad infinitum, and eat out
The book that I already am about.

Well, so I did; but yet I did not think
To show to all the world my pen and ink
In such a mode; I only thought to make
I knew not what; nor did I undertake
Thereby to please my neighbour; no, not I;
I did it mine own self to gratify.

Neither did I but vacant seasons spend
In this my scribble; nor did I intend

But to divert myself, in doing this,

From worser thoughts, which make me do amiss.
Thus I set pen to paper with delight,
And quickly had my thoughts in black and white.
For having now my method by the end,

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.
Well, when I had thus put my ends together,

I show'd them others, that I might see whether
They would condemn them, or them justify;

And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die ;
Some said, John, print it: others said, Not so:
Some said, It might do good; others said, No.
Now, was I in a strait, and did not see
Which was the best thing to be done by me :
At last I thought, since you are thus divided,
I print it will, and so the case decided.

For, thought I, some I see would have it done,
Though others in that channel do not run :
To prove, then, who advised for the best,
Thus I thought fit to put it to the test.

I further thought, if now I did deny
Those that would have it thus to gratify,
I did not know but hinder them I might
Of that which would to them be great delight:
For those which were not for its coming forth,
I said to them, Offend you I am loath;
Yet, since your brethren pleased with it be,
Forbear to judge, till you do further see.

If that thou wilt not read, let it alone;
Some love the meat, some love to pick the bone;
Yea, that I might them better moderate,
I did too with them thus expostulate :-
May I not write in such a style as this?

In such a method too, and yet not miss

My end, thy good? Why may it not be done?
Dark clouds bring waters, when the bright bring none.
Yea, dark or bright, if they their silver drops
Cause to descend, the earth, by yielding crops,
Gives praise to both, and carpeth not at either,
But treasures up the fruit they yield together;
Yea, so commixes both, that in their fruit
None can distinguish this from that; they suit
Her well when hungry; but, if she be full,
She spews out both, and makes their blessing null.
You see the ways the fisherman doth take
To catch the fish: what engines doth he make?
Behold! how he engageth all his wits;
Also his snares, lines, angles, hooks, and nets;
Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line,
Nor snare, nor net, nor engine, can make thine :

1

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »