THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK.

With what doth our imaginations please;
Likewise it tends our troubles to appease.

Sound words, I know, Timothy is to use,
And old wives' fables he is to refuse ;
But yet grave Paul him nowhere did forbid
The use of parables, in which lay hid
That gold, those pearls, and precious stones
that were

Worth digging for, and that with greatest

care.

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?
Three things let me propound, then I submit
To those that are my betters, as is fit.

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 high 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 de-
sign?

And he makes base things usher in divine.

Wer

THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK.

This book is writ 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 melan

choly?

Wouldst thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly?

Wouldst thou read riddles, and their ex

planation?

Or else be drowned in thy contemplation? Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou see

A man i' the 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?

Wouldest 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? Oh, then come

hither,

And lay my book, thy head, and heart toge

ther.

JOHN BUNYAN.

2

THE PILGRIM'S DISTRESS.

a den (the gaol), and I 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. I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and, as he read, he wept and trembled ;* and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, "What shall I do?" (Acts ii. 37.)

In this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased: wherefore at length he brake his mind to his wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them: "O my dear wife," said he, "and you, the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed, that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee my wife, and you my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin; except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered." At this his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed: but the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did: he told them, "Worse and worse." also set to talking to them again; but they began to be hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them, and also to condole his own misery. He would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading and sometimes

* Is. lxiv. 6; Luke xiv. 33; Ps. xxxviii. 4; Hab. ii. 2; Acts xvi. 29.

He