newer generation has, happily, known too little of the catechetical cavern in which their fathers were affectionately prisoned, to realize the splendor of Bunyan's manycolored torch for imaginations which but for it had been eyeless. I had got hold of "Don Quixote," and was scandalized that the noblest enthusiasms should be mocked; from that cynical Slough the Pilgrim rescued me.-CONWAY, MONCURE D., 1888, Books That Have Helped Me, p. 91.

It is worth remembering that out of Puritanism, which is regarded as a narrow creed and life, came the only book since the Reformation which has been acceptable to the whole of Christendom, and is still regarded as the substantial truth of the Christian life in all the churches that preach it under any creed of orthodoxy.

WOODBERRY, GEORGE EDWARD, 1890, Studies in Letters and Life, p. 218.

The "Pilgrim's Progress" was doubtless not written in any special sense for young readers; but successive generations of children have so fastened upon it and made it their own, that we cannot exclude the book from their literature.

The intense earnestness of the Elstow tinker appeals to that stratum of seriousness which is the foundation of the English character, and expresses itself in a directness and simplicity of diction which goes straight to the heart of a child.FIELD, MRS. E. M., 1891, The Child and his Book, p. 202.

The people are living now-all the people the noisy bullying judges, as of the French Revolutionary Courts, or the Hanging Courts after Monmouth's war; the demure, grave Puritan girls; and Matthew, who had the gripes; and lazy, feckless Ignorance, who came to so ill an end, poor fellow; and sturdy Old Honest, and timid Mr. Fearing; not single persons, but dozens arise on the memory. They come, as fresh, as vivid, as if they were out of Scott or Molière; the Tinker is as great a master of character and fiction as the greatest, almost; his style is pure, and plain, and sound, full of old idioms, and even of something like old slang. But even his slang is classical. Bunyan is everybody's author. The very Catholics have their own edition of the Pilgrim: they have cut out Giant Pope, but have been too good-natured to insert Giant

Protestant in his place. Unheralded, unannounced, though not uncriticised (they accused the Tinker of being a plagiarist, of course), Bunyan outshone the Court wits, the learned, the poets of the Restoration, and even the great theologians. -LANG, ANDREW, 1891, Essays in Little, p. 188.

We get in the Pilgrim's Progress an inimitable picture of social life in the lower middle class of England, and in this second part a very vivid glimpse of a Puritan household. The glimpse is corrective of a too stern and formal apprehension of social Puritanism, and in the story are exhibited the natural charms and graces which not only could not be expelled by a stern creed, but were essentially connected with the lofty ideals which made Puritanism a mighty force in history. Bunyan had a genius for storytelling, and his allegory is very frank; but what he showed as well as what he did not show in his picture of Christiana and the children indicates the constraint which rested upon the whole Puritan conception of childhood. It is seen at its best in Bunyan, and this great Puritan poet of common life found a place for it in his survey of man's estate; nature asserted itself in spite of and through Puritanism. SCUDDER, HORACE E., 1894, Childhood in Literature and Art, p. 132.

The

We find at last in the "Pilgrim's Progress" a sentence which belongs to the essential paragraph structure. Bunyan has mastered the short sentence. He can vary it with longer ones not very periodic ones and produce effects of severe variety and of sober rhythm. The most important outcome of the age that ends with Bunyan is this short sentence vernacular stream that has found its way through the obstacles of the age emerges bright and strong in Bunyan. When the next period of development sets in the writers gradually bring this short sentence into the service of the longer thought-integer, and so the new unit of style is evolved.-LEWIS, EDWIN HERBERT, 1894, The History of the English Paragraph, p. 103.

John Bunyan, rough vagrant tinker that he had been, unlearned but for the homely wisdom of the Scriptures and that inborn genius for the comprehending of humanity that Chaucer and Shakespeare

had before him, John Bunyan, reprobate but converted, dreamed in the little room at Bedford Jail a dream that made his

prison a classic place, and gave England of the seventeenth century its one true picture of human life and human victory. We cannot doubt that many a devout Puritan of Bunyan's day, with head bent over the record of Christian's falls and Christian's triumphs, whispered softly to himself, as tears rolled down his cheeks, "It is I, it is I!" One step more, and but one step, and to paint men and women in the relations familiar to us and amid the surroundings of the world wherein we live. -SIMONDS, WILLIAM EDWARD, 1894, Study of English Fiction, p. 38.

About my favorite copy of the "Pilgrim's Progress" many a pleasant reminiscence lingers, for it was one of the books my grandmother gave my father when he left home to engage in the great battle of life; when my father died this thick, dumpy little volume, with its rude cuts and poorly printed pages, came into my possession. I do not know what part this book played in my father's life, but I can say for myself that it has brought me solace and cheer a many times. -FIELD, EUGENE, 1895, The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac, p. 194.

Its language, the language of the Bible, and its allegorical form, initiated a plentiful prose literature of a similar kind. But none have equalled it. Its form is almost epic: its dramatic dialogue, its clear types of character, its vivid descriptions, as of Vanity Fair, and of places, such as the Valley of the Shadow of Death and the Delectable Mountains, which represent states of the human soul, have given an equal but a different pleasure to children and men, to the villager and the scholar. BROOKE, STOPFORD A., 1896, English Literature, p. 169.

Its origin and its history combine to make it one of the most interesting of literary masterpieces which the world possesses. In graphic characterization, in breadth of sympathy, in richness of imagination, in clearness and force of homely Saxon speech, it is the greatest of all the monuments created by the English Bible. As a product of the influences of the Reformation, it stands beside the works of Milton, with which it is spirit ually akin. GEORGE, ANDREW J., 1898,

From Chaucer to Arnold, Types of Literary Art, p. 635.

Next to the Bible, the "Pilgrim's Progress" is probably the book which has exercised more influence over the Religion of England than any other. It did for Protestantism what Dante did for Roman Catholicism whilst exposing sometimes naively its weak points, it affirmed its doctrines, and popularized their application to current life. It supplied what Milton's "Paradise Lost" failed to givesome account of the ethics of the soul. From Milton we get our plan of salvation, but from Bunyan we get our conceptions of morality and our theory of spiritual development. Perhaps few of those many who believe that the Bible is their sole spiritual guide realize the extent to which they see the Old Testament through Milton's eyes, and believe in the Gospel according to Bunyan. There is yet another parallel. Bunyan supplied that imaginative touch and that glow of pictorial sentiment without which no religious message seems to win the masses. He did with his "Pilgrim's Progress"-for a somewhat arid and stern Evangelicalism which repudiated the saintly legends and the material splendors of Rome what Keble, with his "Christian Year," did for the dry bones of Anglicanism. Keble made. Anglicanism poetical. Bunyan made. Evangelicalism romantic. A greater than Bunyan or Keble adopted a similar method, when, as we read, "Without a parable He taught not the people." The extraordinary popularity of Bunyan's great book, one hundred thousand copies of which were circulated in his own lifetime, is not far to seek. He embodied his age-not its secular, but its religious side. No man could have been less influenced by the decapitation of Charles I, the accession of Cromwell, the restoration of that mundane merry monarch, Charles II. He lived through all these, in and out of prison, married and single, with his finger ever on the religious pulse of England; he was as little disturbed by wars and rumors of wars, political cabals and commercial bubbles, as were the great violin-makers of Brescia and Cremona by the political disturbances and bloody squabbles of the small Italian princelets of their day.-HAWEIS, H. R., 1898, The Pilgrim's Progress, Introduction, p. vii.

In Bunyan's beautiful book, we have a social document of the highest value, witnessing to the habits and modes of life of the new burgher-class with a vivid simplicity unsurpassed. Christian's house. and the Town of Destruction, Vanity Fair with its chaffer and gossip, the talk of the pilgrims by the way, are the best pictures we possess of middleclass life in seventeenth century England. -SCUDDER, VIDA D., 1898, Social Ideals in English Letters, p. 87.

To John Bunyan the English novel owes a very great debt. What fiction needed, if it was ever to come near a portrayal of real life, was first of all to rid itself of the extravagances of the romancer and the cynicism of the picaresque storyteller. Though Bunyan was despised by his contemporary men of letters, it surely could be but a little time before the precision of his imagination and the force and charm of his simple and idiomatic English would be felt and then imitated. As no writer preceding him, Bunyan knew the artistic effet of minute detail in giving reasonableness to an impossible story. In the "Pilgrim's Progress" (1678-84) he so mingled with those imaginative scenes of his own familiar Scripture imagery and the still more familiar incidents of English village life, that the illusion of reality must have been to the readers for whom he wrote well-nigh perfect. The allegories of Barclay and Scudéri could not be understood without keys; Bunyan's "Palace Beautiful" needed none.-CROSS, WILBUR L., 1899, The Development of the English Novel, p. 21.

In the last chapters of "Pilgrim's Progress," where the company wait in the land of Beulah by the side of the great river for the summons to cross to the eternal city, Bunyan reaches a dignified pathos unexampled in all literature. If this book were in an unknown tongue, the scholars of the world would sound its praises, but as it is folk literature and perfectly intelligible, it is neglected for matter entirely inferior. It remains one of the greatest books in the English language, and no other nation has anything of the same kind to compare with it. In devotion to what he considered his religious duty, Bunyan was not less heroic. than Milton.-JOHNSON, C. F., 1900, History of English and American Literature, p. 242.

HOLY WAR

1682

If the Pilgrim's Progress did not exist, would be the best allegory that ever was written. -MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1843, John Bunyan, Critical and Historical Essays.

Though far less varied and fascinating than the "Pilgrim's Progress," is a more perfect allegory, full of passages of exquisite symbolism and tenderness. As a piece of metaphysical writing, it seems to me wonderful, from its profound, thoroughly uncalvinistic recognition of the native powers of the soul. . . . It is the most useful book I ever met with to lecture on to poor men, or an intelligent class of boys.-GREENWELL, DORA, 1863, Memoirs, p. 76.

I cannot agree with Macaulay in thinking that, if there had been no "Pilgrim's Progress," "The Holy War' would have been the first of religious allegories. . . "The Holy War" would have entitled Bunyan to a place among the masters of English Literature. It would never have made his name a household word in every English-speaking family on the globe.FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, 1880, Bunyan (English Men of Letters), p. 118.

There was not much literature in that early home of ours, and what little there was by no means attracted me. Boston's "Fourfold State" and Hervey's "Meditations" were not lively reading. Happily, they were relieved by "The Pilgrim's Progress" and "The Holy War;" and in those years I had the bad taste to prefer the latter; to boys pilgrims are by no means so interesting as soldiers.—SMITH, REV. WALTER C., 1887, Books Which Have Influenced Me, p. 91.

The style of "Pilgrim's Progress" is the very perfection of what the style of such a book should be-homely and yet distinguished, exquisitely simple, yet tuned to music at all its finer moments. The allegory is successful above all other allegories in literature. The abstractions which people it, even when they are mentioned only in one or two lines, never fail to live and stand out vividly as human beings. Admirers of "The Holy War" have tried to assert as much for that longer and more laborious work. But popular taste has rightly determined that there should be a thousand readers of the first

story to ten of the second. There are very fine passages in "The Holy War;" the opening, especially all the first siege of Mansoul, is superbly conceived and executed. But the personages which are introduced are too incongruous, the intrigues of Shaddei and the resistance of Diabolus are too incredible, the contest is too one-sided from the first, to interest us as we are interested in the human adventures of Christian. Bunyan seems powerless to close "The Holy War," and before he is able to persuade himself to drop the threads, the whole skein of the allegory is hopelessly entangled.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 85.

There can, in fact, be little doubt that the idea is consciously derived from "Paradise Lost." In both the banished fiends cast about for some means of retaliating upon their omnipotent foe; in Milton their attack is levelled against the Garden of Eden, in Bunyan against the soul of man. All human attributes, virtuous or vicious, are allegorized with graphic liveliness, but at length one wearies of the crowd of abstractions; and where strength was most necessary, Bunyan is weak. Emanuel is not godlike, and Diabolus is not terrible. The book is perhaps chiefly interesting as an index to the great progress effected since Bunyan's time in spirituality as regards men's religious conceptions, and in freedom and enlightenment as concerns the things of earth. No one would now depict the offended majesty of Heaven as so like the offended majesty of the Stuarts; or deem that the revolters' offence could be mitigated by the abjectness of their submission; or try criminals with such unfairness; or lecture them upon conviction with such lack of judicial decorum. Bunyan's own spirit seems narrower than of old; among the traitors upon whom Emanuel's ministers execute justice he includes not only Notruth and Pitiless, but also Electiondoubter and Vocation-doubter, who represent the majority of the members of the Church of England. The whole tone, in truth, is such as might be expected from one nurtured upon the Old rather than the New Testament, and who had never conceived any doubts of the justice of the Israelites' dealings with the Canaanites. The literary power, nevertheless, is

unabated; much ingenuity is shown in keeping up the interest of the story; and there is the old gift of vitalizing abstractions by uncompromising realism of treatment. GARNETT, RICHARD, 1895, The Age of Dryden, p. 239.

The singular similarity both in the drama and in the spirit of the history and of the allegory cannot be explained, so far as I can see, except by supposing that Bunyan had heard and assimilated the story of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster, and had heard it, not through. distorted histories, but by the living voice of tradition. And if it be admitted that the struggle of which Münster became the centre was the archetype of Bunyan's "Holy War," then we not only get an interesting literary fact, but, what is more important, a vivid light on the mind of the religious common people of England during a period when this country was as virile in its character as at any period in its history. HEATH, RICHARD, 1897, The Archetype of "The Holy War," The Contemporary Review, vol. 72, p. 118.

POEMS

Bunyan's muse is clad in russet, wears shoes and stockings, has a country accent, and walks along the level Bedfordshire roads. If as a poet he is homely and idiomatic, he is always natural, straightforward, and sincere. His lines are unpolished, but they have pith and sinew, like the talk of a shrewd peasant. In the "Emblems" there are many touches of pure poetry, shewing that in his mind there was a vein of silver which, under favourable circumstances, might have been worked to rich issues; and everywhere there is an admirable homely pregnancy and fulness of meaning. He has the strong thought, and the knack of the skilled workman to drive, by a single blow, the nail home to the head. -SMITH, ALEXANDER, 1867? ed., Divine Emblems, by John Bunyan, p. x.

It has been the fashion to call Bunyan's verse doggerel; but no verse is doggerel which has a sincere and rational meaning in it. Goethe, who understood his own trade, says that the test of poetry is the substance which remains when the poetry is reduced to prose. Bunyan had infinite invention. His mind was full of objects which he had gathered at first-hand, from

observation and reflection. He had excellent command of the English language, and could express what he wished with sharp, defined outlines, and without the waste of a word. The rhythmical structure of his prose is carefully correct. Scarcely a syllable is ever out of place. His ear for verse, though less true, is seldom wholly at fault, and, whether in prose or verse, he had the superlative merit that he could never write nonsense. If one of the motives of poetical form be to clothe thought and feeling in the dress in which it can be most easily remembered, Bunyan's lines are often as successful as the best lines of Quarles or George Herbert.-FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, 1880, Bunyan (English Men of Letters), p. 91.

The more we read of these poems, not given to the world till twelve years after Bunyan's death, and that by a publisher who was "a repeated offender against the laws of honest dealing," the more we are inclined to agree with Dr. Brown, that the internal evidence of their style renders their genuineness at the least questionable. In the dull prosaic level of these compositions there is certainly no trace of the "force and power" always present in Bunyan's rudest rhymes, still less of the "dash of genius" and the "sparkle of soul" which occasionally discover the hand of a master. Of the authenticity of Bunyan's "Divine Emblems," originally published three years after his death under the title of "Country Rhymes for Children," there is no question. The internal evidence confirms the external. The book is thoroughly in Bunyan's vein, and in its homely naturalness of imagery recalls the similitudes of the "Interpreter's House," especially those expounded to Christiana and her boys.-VENABLES, EDMUND, 1888, Life of John Bunyan (Great Writers), p. 122.

GENERAL

His masterpiece is his "Pilgrim's Progress,' one of the most popular, and, I may add, one of the most ingenious books in the English language. The works of Bunyan, which had been long printed on tobacco-paper, by Nicholas Boddington and others, were, in 1736 and 1737, reprinted in two decent volumes folio. They are now come forth in a fairer edition than ever, with the recommendation

of Mr. George Whitfield.-GRANGER, JAMES, 1769-1824, Biographical History of England, vol. v, p. 99.

Bunyan is the Spenser of the people. The fire burned towards Heaven, although the altar was rude and rustic.—DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1796-1818, Self-Education, The Literary Character.

The style of Bunyan is delightful to every reader, and invaluable as a study to every person who wishes to obtain a wide command over the English language. The vocabulary is the vocabulary of the common people. There is not an expression, if we except a few technical terms of theology, which would puzzle the rudest peasant. We have observed several pages which do not contain a single word of more than two syllables. Yet no writer has said more exactly what he meant to say. For magnificence, for pathos, for vehement exhortation, for subtle disquisition, for every purpose of the poet, the orator, and the divine, this homely dialect -the dialect of plain working men-was perfectly sufficient.-MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1831, Southey's Edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, Edinburgh Review, vol. 54, p. 460.

One of the greatest poets that ever lived we mean John Bunyan, homely as may be the associations connected with the inspired tinker's name has left some most pertinent instances in his writings of the sway exercised by the imagination over the external senses. In describing the dark internal conflicts which convulsed him, during one stage of his religious experience, he says: "I lifted up my head, and methought I saw as if the sun that shineth in the heavens did grudge to give me light; as if the very stones in the street, and tiles upon the houses, did band themselves against me.' This is as perfect poetry as ever was written.-WHIPPLE, EDWIN P., 1844, Wordsworth, Essays and Reviews.

The impressiveness of Bunyan resembles that of the old woodcuts executed in the infancy of the art of engraving: there is in both cases a rude vigour and homeliness of outline, a strange ignorance of costume, and a powerful tendency to realise even the most abstract things by connecting them with the ordinary details of every day life; there is also the same earnest intensity of purpose, and incessant