Let me add one word more. O man of God
Art thou offended? Dost thou wish I had
Put forth my matter in another dress ?
Or, that I had in things been more express ?
To those that are my betters, as is fit,
Three things let me propound; then 1 submit.

1. I find not that I am denied the use
Of this my method, so I no abuse
Put on the words, things, readers, or be rude
In handling figure or similitude
In application

; but all that I may
Seek the advance of truth this or that way.
Denied, did I say? Nay I have leave,
(Examples too, and that from them that have
God better pleased, by their words or ways,
Than any man that breatheth now-a-days)
Thus to express my mind, thus to declare
Things unto thee that excellentest are.

2. I find that men as bigh as trees will write
Dialogue-wise ; yet no man doth them slight
For writing so: indeed if they abuse
Truth, cursed be they, and the craft they use
To that intent; but yet let truth be free
To make her sallies upon thee and me,
Which way it pleases God: for who knows how,
Better than he that taught us first to plough,
To guide our minds and pens for his design?
And he makes base things usher in divine.

3. I find that boly writ in many places
Hath semblance with this method, where the cases
Do call for one thing, to set forth another ;
Use it I may then, and yet nothing smother
Truth's golden beams : nay, by this method may
Make it cast forth its rays as light as day.

And now, before I do put up my pen,
1'] shew the profit of my book; and then
Commit both thee and it unto that hand
That pulls the strong down, and makes weak ones stond.

This book it chalketh out before thine eyes
The man that seeks the everlasting prize :
It shews you whence he comes, whither he goes,
What he leaves undone ; also what he does :
It also shews you how he runs and runs
Till he unto the gate of glory comes

It shows, too, who set out for life amain.
As if the lasting crown they would obtain :
Here also you may see the reason why
They lose their labour, and like fools do die.

This book will make a traveller of thee,
If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be ;
It will direct thee to the Holy Land,
If thou wilt its directions understand:
Yea, it will make the slothful active be;
The blind also delightful things to see.

Art thou for something rare and profitable ?
Wouldset thou see a truth within a fable?
Art thou forgetful ? Wouldest thou remember
From New-year's-day to the last of December?
Then read my fancies ; they will stick like burs,
And may be to the helpless, comforters.

This book is wrote in such a dialect,
As may the minds of listless men affect :
It seems a novelty, and yet contains
Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains.

Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy Wouldst thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly > Wouldst thou read riddles and their explanation ? Or else be drowned in thy contemplation? Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou see A man i' th' clouds, and hear him speak to thee? Wouldst thou be in a dream, and yet not sleep? Or wouldst thou in a moment laugh and weep? Or wouldst thou lose thyself and catch no harm, And find thyself again without a charm? Wouldst read thyself, and read thou know'st not what, And yet know whether thou art blest or not, By reading the same lines ? O then come hitner, And lay my book, thy head, and heart together.

JOHN BUNYAN

AN

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place were was a Den, and laid me down in that place to sleep ; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. (Isa. Ixiv. 6. Luke xiy. 33. Ps. xxxviii. 4.) I looked, and saw him open

Bedford jail, in which the author was a prisoner for the sake of Christ and the gospel. The figure is borrowed from Song iv. 8. He had used this allusion before in his Grace abounding. Addressing his children in the faith he says, “I now once again, as before from the top of Shenir and Hermon, so now from the Lion's Den, and from the mountain of the Leopards, look yet after you all, greatly longing to see your safe arrival into the desired haven."

b The author's mind was so suddenly and powerfully arrested and carried away by his subject, that he with great propriety represents the working of his imagination as a pleasing and instructive dream.

“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." We also learn from the Author's Life, that he had many dreams, which made impressions on his mind never to be forgotten, and which were probably connected in some way with that allegorical turn of mind which his writings show him to have possessed.