LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN.

LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN.

O thou, whom, borne on fancy's eager wing
Back to the season of life's happy spring,
I pleased remember, and while memory yet
Holds fast her office here, can ne'er forget;
Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;
Whose humorous vein, strong sense, and simple style,
May teach the gayest, make the gravest smile;
Witty, and well-employed, and, like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables his slighted word;

I name thee not, lest so despised a name
Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame;
Yet e'en in transitory life's late day,

That mingles all my brown with sober gray,
Revere the man, whose PILGRIM marks the road,
And guides the PROGRESS of the soul to God.

COWPER.

WHEN Cowper composed his Satires, he hid the name of Whitefield "beneath well-sounding Greek ;"* and abstained from mentioning Bunyan while he panegyrized him, "lest so despised a name should move a sneer." In Bunyan's case this could hardly have been needful forty years ago; for though a just appreciation of our elder and better writers was at that time far less general than it appears to be at present, the author of the Pilgrim's Progress was even then in high repute. His fame may literally be said to have risen; beginning among the people, it had made its way up to those who are called the public. In most instances, the many receive gradually and slowly the opinions of the few, respecting literary merit; and sometimes, in assentation to such authority, profess with their lips an admiration of they know not what, they know not why. But here the opinion of the multitude had been ratified by the judicious. The people knew what they admired. It is a book which makes its way through the fancy to the understanding and the heart: the child peruses it with wonder and delight; in youth we discover the [* Leuconomus (beneath well-sounding Greek

I slur a name a poet must not speak). COWPER, 'Hope."]

genius which it displays; its worth is apprehended as we advance in years; and we perceive its merits feelingly in declining age.

John Bunyan has faithfully recorded his own spiritual history.* Had he dreamed of being "for ever known," and taking his place among those who may be called the immortals of the earth, he would probably have introduced more details of his temporal circumstances and the events of his life. But glorious dreamer as he was, this never entered into his imaginations: less concerning him than might have been expected has been preserved by those of his own sect, and it is now not likely that any thing more should be recovered from oblivion. The village of Elstow,

which is within a mile of Bedford, was his birth-place, 1628 the year of his birth; and his descent, to use his own words," of a low, inconsiderable generation; my father's house," he says, “being of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families in the land." It is stated, in a history of Bedfordshire, that he was bred to the business of a brazier, and worked as a journeyman in Bedford: but the Braziers' Company would not

[* Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners,' printed in his Works, 2 vols. fol. 1736, and 2 vols. fol. 1767.]