(_Fragments of a Discourse, delivered under the similitude of a Dream,
but of symbolic and purely secular significance._)
* * * * *
Now, at the end of this Valley of Obstruction was another, called
the Valley of the Shadow of Disunion; and the Pilgrim must needs go
through it, because the way to the Plain of Progress and the Pinnacle
of Passage lay through the midst of it.
Now this Valley is a very perilous place,--a place where none care to
dwell, and which few attain to pass through. And here the Pilgrim was
worse put to it than in his previous encounter with the Apollyon of
Obstruction.
I saw then in my dream that when the Pilgrim was got to the borders
of the Shadow of Disunion, there met him certain men, aforetime his
fellow-travellers, making haste to go back; to whom the Pilgrim spake
as follows:---
_Pilgrim._ Whither are you going?
_Men._ Back again! And we would have you do so too, if either life,
peace, or honour is prized by you.
_Pilgrim._ Why, what's the matter?
_Men._ Matter? We were going that way as you are going, and went as
far as we durst; and indeed we were almost past coming back.
_Pilgrim._ But what have you met with?
_Men._ Why, we were almost in the Valley of the Shadow of Disunion,
where abide Disruption, Dishonour, and Disaster, but that, by good
hap, keeping a BRIGHT look-out, we looked before us, and saw the
danger ere we came to it.
_Pilgrim._ But what have you seen?
_Men._ Seen? Why the Valley itself, which is as dark as pitch; we
also saw there the hobgoblins, bogies, and dragons of the pit; we also
heard in that Valley a continual howling and yelling, as of a people
under unutterable misery, who there sat bound in affliction and
chains; and over that Valley hang the discouraging clouds of
Confusion; Discord, also, doth always spread its wings over it. In a
word, it is every whit dreadful, being utterly without Law and Order.
_Pilgrim._ Nevertheless I perceive not yet, by what you have said, but
that this is my way to the desired haven.
_Men._ Be it thy way--we will not choose it for ours!
So they parted, and the Pilgrim went on his way, but still with his
sword drawn in his hand, for fear lest he should be assaulted.
* * * * *
I saw then in my dream, as far as this Valley reached, there was on
the right hand a very deep ditch, that, to wit, dismally known to
some as the Last Ditch, whereinto the blind have oftentimes urged
the blind, even threatening therein to plunge and perish, rather
than acknowledge certain things which subsequently they nevertheless
proceeded pretty peaceably to accept. Again, behold, on the left hand,
there was a very dangerous quag or bog, into which if even a good, or
grand, man falls, he finds no bottom for his foot to stand on.
The pathway was here also exceedingly narrow, and therefore the
Pilgrim was the more put to it; for when he sought, in the dark, to
shun the ditch on the one hand, he was ready to tip over into the bog
on the other; also, when he sought to escape the bog, without great
carefulness, he would be ready to fall into the ditch. Thus he went
on, and I heard him sigh bitterly, for, besides the dangers mentioned
above, the pathway was here so dark that ofttimes, when he lifted up
his foot to go forward, he knew not where or upon what he should set
it next.
[Illustration: A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.]
"Now," thought the Pilgrim, "what shall I do?" And ever and anon the
flame and smoke would come out in such abundance, with sparks and
hideous noises (things that cared not for the Pilgrim's sword) that he
was forced to put up his blade, and betake himself to another weapon
called Tactics. Thus he went on a good while, yet still the flames
would be reaching towards him; also, he heard doleful voices, and
rushings to and fro, so that sometimes he thought he should be torn in
pieces, or trodden down like mire in the streets. This frightful sight
was seen, and these direful noises were heard by him for a long while
together; and coming to a place where he thought he heard a great
company of fierce opponents (as it were a numerous and influential
Deputation, or a prodigious Procession) coming forward to meet him,
he stopped, and began to muse what he had best to do. Sometimes he had
half a thought to go back; then again he thought he might be half-way
through the Valley. He remembered, also, how he had already vanquished
many a danger, and that the peril of going back might be much
more than to go forward. So he resolved to go on; yet the bogies,
hobgoblins, and dragons of the pit seemed to come nearer and nearer,
besetting him with boding warnings, angry expostulations, and menacing
outcries from both sides of his strait and perilous pathway, as well
from the bog that was on the one hand, as from the ditch that was on
the other.
* * * * *
And here, as it seemed, my Dream did lapse and intermit, and I lost
sight, for a while, of the Pilgrim and his perils, much musing whether
he, though verily valiant and of manifest good will, were wise in
making this dangerous adventure, or at all like to fare safely through
and escape the ditch, the bog, the darkness, and the demoniac denizens
of this dismal Valley of the Shadow of Disunion.
* * * * *