THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.
If the 'Holy War' is an unfit subject for allegorical treatment, the
'Pilgrim's Progress' is no less perfectly adapted for it. The 'Holy
War' is a representation of the struggle of human nature with evil,
and the struggle is left undecided. The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a
representation of the efforts of a single soul after holiness, which
has its natural termination when the soul quits its mortal home and
crosses the dark river. Each one of us has his own life battle to
fight out, his own sorrows and trials, his own failures or successes,
and his own end. He wins the game, or he loses it. The account is
wound up, and the curtain falls upon him. Here Bunyan had a material
as excellent in itself as it was exactly suited to his peculiar
genius; and his treatment of the subject from his own point of
view--that of English Protestant Christianity--is unequalled and never
will be equalled. I may say never, for in this world of change the
point of view alters fast, and never continues in one stay. As we are
swept along the stream of time, lights and shadows shift their places,
mountain plateaus turn to sharp peaks, mountain ranges dissolve into
vapour. The river which has been gliding deep and slow along the
plain, leaps suddenly over a precipice and plunges foaming down a
sunless gorge. In the midst of changing circumstances the central
question remains the same--What am I? what is this world in which I
appear and disappear like a bubble? who made me? and what am I to do?
Some answer or other the mind of man demands and insists on receiving.
Theologian or poet offers at long intervals explanations which are
accepted as credible for a time. They wear out, and another follows,
and then another. Bunyan's answer has served average English men and
women for two hundred years, but no human being with Bunyan's
intellect and Bunyan's sincerity can again use similar language; and
the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is and will remain unique of its kind--an
imperishable monument of the form in which the problem presented
itself to a person of singular truthfulness, simplicity, and piety,
who after many struggles accepted the Puritan creed as the adequate
solution of it. It was composed exactly at the time when it was
possible for such a book to come into being; the close of the period
when the Puritan formula was a real belief, and was about to change
from a living principle into an intellectual opinion. So long as a
religion is fully alive, men do not talk about it or make allegories
about it. They assume its truth as out of reach of question, and they
simply obey its precepts as they obey the law of the land. It becomes
a subject of art and discourse only when men are unconsciously ceasing
to believe, and therefore the more vehemently think that they believe,
and repudiate with indignation the suggestion that doubt has found its
way into them. After this religion no longer governs their lives. It
governs only the language in which they express themselves, and they
preserve it eagerly, in the shape of elaborate observances or in the
agreeable forms of art and literature.
The 'Pilgrim's Progress' was written before the 'Holy War,' while
Bunyan was still in prison at Bedford, and was but half conscious of
the gifts which he possessed. It was written for his own
entertainment, and therefore without the thought--so fatal in its
effects and so hard to be resisted--of what the world would say about
it. It was written in compulsory quiet, when he was comparatively
unexcited by the effort of perpetual preaching, and the shapes of
things could present themselves to him as they really were,
undistorted by theological narrowness. It is the same story which he
has told of himself in 'Grace Abounding,' thrown out into an objective
form.
He tells us himself, in a metrical introduction, the circumstances
under which it was composed:--
When at the first I took my pen in hand,
Thus for to write, I did not understand
That I at all should make a little book
In such a mode. Nay, I had undertook
To make another, which when almost done,
Before I was aware I this begun.
And thus it was.--I writing of the way
And race of saints in this our Gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an Allegory
About the 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 these again began to multiply,
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast
I'll put you by yourselves, lest you at last
Should prove _ad Infinitum_, and eat out
The book that I already am about.
Well, so I did; but yet I did not think
To show to all the world my pen and ink
In such a mode. I only thought to make,
I knew not what. Nor did I undertake
Merely to please my neighbours; no, not I.
I did it mine own self to gratify.
Neither did I but vacant seasons spend
In this my scribble; nor did I intend
But to divert myself in doing this
From worser thoughts which make me do amiss.
Thus I set pen to paper with delight,
And quickly had my thoughts in black and white;
For having now my method by the end,
Still as I pulled it came; and so I penned
It down: until at last it came to be
For length and breadth the bigness which you see.
Well, when I had thus put my ends together,
I showed them others, that I might see whether
They would condemn them or them justify.
And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die;
Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so;
Some said it might do good; others said, No.
Now was I in a strait, and did not see
Which was the best thing to be done by me.
At last I thought, since you are thus divided,
I print it will; and so the case decided.
The difference of opinion among Bunyan's friends is easily explicable.
The allegoric representation of religion to men profoundly convinced
of the truth of it might naturally seem light and fantastic, and the
breadth of the conception could not please the narrow sectarians who
knew no salvation beyond the lines of their peculiar formulas. The
Pilgrim though in a Puritan dress is a genuine man. His experience is
so truly human experience, that Christians of every persuasion can
identify themselves with him; and even those who regard Christianity
itself as but a natural outgrowth of the conscience and intellect,
and yet desire to live nobly and make the best of themselves, can
recognise familiar foot-prints in every step of Christian's journey.
Thus the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a book, which, when once read, can
never be forgotten. We too, every one of us, are pilgrims on the same
road, and images and illustrations come back upon us from so faithful
an itinerary, as we encounter similar trials, and learn for ourselves
the accuracy with which Bunyan has described them. There is no
occasion to follow a story minutely which memory can so universally
supply. I need pause only at a few spots which are too charming to
pass by.
How picturesque and vivid are the opening lines:
'As I walked through the wilderness of this world I lighted on a
certain place where there was a den,[10] 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, a man clothed in rags, standing with his face from
his own home with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his
back.'
[Footnote 10: The Bedford Prison.]
The man is Bunyan himself as we see him in 'Grace Abounding.' His sins
are the burden upon his back. He reads his book and weeps and
trembles. He speaks of his fears to his friends and kindred. They
think 'some frenzy distemper has got into his head.' He meets a man in
the fields whose name is Evangelist. Evangelist tells him to flee from
the City of Destruction. He shows him the way by which he must go, and
points to the far-off light which will guide him to the wicket-gate.
He sets off, and his neighbours of course think him mad. The world
always thinks men mad who turn their backs upon it. Obstinate and
Pliable (how well we know them both!) follow to persuade him to
return. Obstinate talks practical common sense to him, and as it has
no effect, gives him up as a fantastical fellow. Pliable thinks that
there may be something in what he says, and offers to go with him.
Before they can reach the wicket-gate, they fall into a 'miry slough.'
Who does not know the miry slough too? When a man begins for the first
time to think seriously about himself, the first thing that rises
before him is a consciousness of his miserable past life. Amendment
seems to be desperate. He thinks it is too late to change for any
useful purpose, and he sinks into despondency.
Pliable finding the road disagreeable has soon had enough of it. He
scrambles out of the slough 'on the side which was nearest to his own
house' and goes home. Christian struggling manfully is lifted out 'by
a man whose name was Help,' and goes on upon his journey, but the
burden on his back weighs him down. He falls in with Mr. Worldly
Wiseman who lives in the town of Carnal Policy. Mr. Worldly Wiseman,
who looks like a gentleman, advises him not to think about his sins.
If he has done wrong he must alter his life and do better for the
future. He directs him to a village called Morality, where he will
find a gentleman well known in those parts, who will take his burden
off--Mr. Legality. Either Mr. Legality will do it himself, or it can
be done equally well by his pretty young son, Mr. Civility.
The way to a better life does not lie in a change of outward action,
but in a changed heart. Legality soon passes into civility, according
to the saying that vice loses half its evil when it loses its
grossness. Bunyan would have said that the poison was the more deadly
from being concealed. Christian after a near escape is set straight
again. He is admitted into the wicket-gate and is directed how he is
to go forward. He asks if he may not lose his way. He is answered Yes,
'There are many ways (that) butt down on this and they are crooked and
wide. But thus thou mayest know the right from the wrong, that only
being straight and narrow.'
Good people often suppose that when a man is once 'converted,' as they
call it, and has entered on a religious life, he will find everything
made easy. He has turned to Christ, and in Christ he will find rest
and pleasantness. The path of duty is unfortunately not strewed with
flowers at all. The primrose road leads to the other place. As on all
other journeys, to persevere is the difficulty. The pilgrim's feet
grow sorer the longer he walks. His lower nature follows him like a
shadow watching opportunities to trip him up, and ever appearing in
some new disguise. In the way of comfort he is allowed only certain
resting places, quiet intervals of peace when temptation is absent,
and the mind can gather strength and encouragement from a sense of the
progress which it has made.
The first of these resting places at which Christian arrives is the
'Interpreter's House.' This means, I conceive, that he arrives at a
right understanding of the objects of human desire as they really are.
He learns to distinguish there between passion and patience, passion
which demands immediate gratification, and patience which can wait and
hope. He sees the action of grace on the heart, and sees the Devil
labouring to put it out. He sees the man in the iron cage who was once
a flourishing professor, but had been tempted away by pleasure and had
sinned against light. He hears a dream too--one of Bunyan's own early
dreams, but related as by another person. The Pilgrim himself was
beyond the reach of such uneasy visions. But it shows how profoundly
the terrible side of Christianity had seized on Bunyan's imagination
and how little he was able to forget it.
'This night as I was in my sleep I dreamed, and behold the heavens
grew exceeding black: also it thundered and lightened in most fearful
wise, that it put me into an agony; so I looked up in my dream and saw
the clouds rack at an unusual rate, upon which I heard a great sound
of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud attended with the
thousands of heaven. They were all in a flaming fire, and the heaven
also was in a burning flame. I heard then a voice, saying, Arise ye
dead and come to judgment; and with that the rocks rent, the graves
opened, and the dead that were therein came forth. Some of them were
exceeding glad and looked upward, some sought to hide themselves under
the mountains. Then I saw the man that sate upon the cloud open the
book and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a fierce
flame that issued out and came from before him, a convenient distance
betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and the prisoners at the
bar. I heard it also proclaimed to them that attended on the man that
sate on the cloud, Gather together the tares, the chaff, and the
stubble, and cast them into the burning lake. And with that the
bottomless pit opened just whereabouts I stood, out of the mouth of
which there came in an abundant manner smoke and coals of fire with
hideous noises. It was also said to the same persons, Gather the wheat
into my garner. And with that I saw many catched up and carried away
into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also sought to hide myself,
but I could not, for the man that sate upon the cloud still kept his
eye upon me. My sins also came into my mind, and my conscience did
accuse me on every side. I thought the day of judgment was come and I
was not ready for it.'
The resting time comes to an end. The Pilgrim gathers himself
together, and proceeds upon his way. He is not to be burdened for ever
with the sense of his sins. It fell from off his back at the sight of
the cross. Three shining ones appear and tell him that his sins are
forgiven; they take off his rags and provide him with a new suit.
He now encounters fellow-travellers; and the seriousness of the story is
relieved by adventures and humorous conversations. At the bottom of a hill
he finds three gentlemen asleep, 'a little out of the way.' These were
Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. He tries to rouse them, but does not
succeed. Presently two others are seen tumbling over the wall into the
Narrow Way. They are come from the land of Vain Glory, and are called
Formalist and Hypocrisy. Like the Pilgrim, they are bound for Mount Zion;
but the wicket-gate was 'too far about,' and they had come by a short cut.
'They had custom for it a thousand years and more; and custom being of so
long standing would be admitted legal by any impartial judge.' Whether
right or wrong they insist that they are in the way, and no more is to be
said. But they are soon out of it again. The hill is the hill Difficulty,
and the road parts into three. Two go round the bottom, as modern engineers
would make them. The other rises straight over the top. Formalist and
Hypocrisy choose the easy ways, and are heard of no more. Pilgrim climbs
up, and after various accidents comes to the second resting-place, the
Palace Beautiful, built by the Lord of the Hill to entertain strangers in.
The recollections of Sir Bevis of Southampton furnished Bunyan with his
framework. Lions guard the court. Fair ladies entertain him as if he had
been a knight-errant in quest of the Holy Grail. The ladies, of course, are
all that they ought to be: the Christian graces--Discretion, Prudence,
Piety, and Charity. He tells them his history. They ask him if he has
brought none of his old belongings with him. He answers yes; but greatly
against his will: his inward and carnal cogitations, with which his
countrymen, as well as himself, were so much delighted. Only in golden
hours they seemed to leave him. Who cannot recognise the truth of this? Who
has not groaned over the follies and idiocies that cling to us like the
doggerel verses that hang about our memories? The room in which he sleeps
is called Peace. In the morning he is shown the curiosities, chiefly
Scripture relics, in the palace. He is taken to the roof, from which he
sees far off the outlines of the Delectable Mountains. Next, the ladies
carry him to the armoury, and equip him for the dangers which lie next
before him. He is to go down into the Valley of Humiliation, and pass
thence through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Bunyan here shows the finest insight. To some pilgrims the Valley of
Humiliation was the pleasantest part of the journey. Mr. Feeblemind,
in the second part of the story, was happier there than anywhere. But
Christian is Bunyan himself; and Bunyan had a stiff self-willed
nature, and had found his spirit the most stubborn part of him. Down
here he encounters Apollyon himself, 'straddling quite over the whole
breadth of the way'--a more effective devil than the Diabolus of the
'Holy War.' He fights him for half-a-day, is sorely wounded in head,
hand, and foot, and has a near escape of being pressed to death.
Apollyon spreads his bat wings at last, and flies away; but there
remains the Valley of the Shadow of Death, the dark scene of lonely
horrors. Two men meet him on the borders of it. They tell him the
valley is full of spectres; and they warn him, if he values his life,
to go back. Well Bunyan knew these spectres, those dreary misgivings
that he was toiling after an illusion; that 'good' and 'evil' had no
meaning except on earth, and for man's convenience; and that he
himself was but a creature of a day, allowed a brief season of what is
called existence, and then to pass away and be as if he had never
been. It speaks well for Bunyan's honesty that this state of mind
which religious people generally call wicked is placed directly in his
Pilgrim's path, and he is compelled to pass through it. In the valley,
close at the road-side, there is a pit, which is one of the mouths of
hell. A wicked spirit whispers to him as he goes by. He imagines that
the thought had proceeded out of his own heart.
The sky clears when he is beyond the gorge. Outside it are the caves
where the two giants, Pope and Pagan, had lived in old times. Pagan
had been dead many a day. Pope was still living, 'but he had grown so
crazy and stiff in his joints that he could now do little more than
sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they went by, and
biting his nails because he could not come at them.'
Here he overtakes 'Faithful,' a true pilgrim like himself. Faithful
had met with trials; but his trials have not resembled Christian's.
Christian's difficulties, like Bunyan's own, had been all spiritual.
'The lusts of the flesh' seem to have had no attraction for him.
Faithful had been assailed by 'Wanton,' and had been obliged to fly
from her. He had not fallen into the slough; but he had been beguiled
by the Old Adam, who offered him one of his daughters for a wife. In
the Valley of the Shadow of Death he had found sunshine all the way.
Doubts about the truth of religion had never troubled the simpler
nature of the good Faithful.
Mr. Talkative is the next character introduced, and is one of the best
figures which Bunyan has drawn; Mr. Talkative, with Scripture at his
fingers' ends, and perfect master of all doctrinal subtleties, ready
'to talk of things heavenly or things earthly, things moral or things
evangelical, things sacred or things profane, things past or things to
come, things foreign or things at home, things essential or things
circumstantial, provided that all be done to our profit.'
This gentleman would have taken in Faithful, who was awed by such a
rush of volubility. Christian has seen him before, knows him well, and
can describe him. 'He is the son of one Saywell. He dwelt in Prating
Row. He is for any company and for any talk. As he talks now with you
so will he talk when on the ale-bench. The more drink he hath in his
crown, the more of these things he hath in his mouth. Religion hath no
place in his heart, or home, or conversation; all that he hath lieth
in his tongue, and his religion is to make a noise therewith.'
The elect, though they have ceased to be of the world, are still in
the world. They are still part of the general community of mankind,
and share, whether they like it or not, in the ordinary activities of
life. Faithful and Christian have left the City of Destruction. They
have shaken off from themselves all liking for idle pleasures. They
nevertheless find themselves in their journey at Vanity Fair, 'a fair
set up by Beelzebub 5000 years ago.' Trade of all sorts went on at
Vanity Fair, and people of all sorts were collected there: cheats,
fools, asses, knaves, and rogues. Some were honest, many were
dishonest; some lived peaceably and uprightly, others robbed,
murdered, seduced their neighbours' wives, or lied and perjured
themselves. Vanity Fair was European society as it existed in the days
of Charles II. Each nation was represented. There was British Row,
French Row, and Spanish Row. 'The wares of Rome and her merchandise
were greatly promoted at the fair, only the English nation with some
others had taken a dislike to them.' The pilgrims appear on the scene
as the Apostles appeared at Antioch and Rome, to tell the people that
there were things in the world of more consequence than money and
pleasure. The better sort listen. Public opinion in general calls them
fools and Bedlamites. The fair becomes excited, disturbances are
feared, and the authorities send to make inquiries. Authorities
naturally disapprove of novelties; and Christian and Faithful are
arrested, beaten, and put in the cage. Their friends insist that they
have done no harm, that they are innocent strangers teaching only what
will make men better instead of worse. A riot follows. The authorities
determine to make an example of them, and the result is the
ever-memorable trial of the two pilgrims. They are brought in irons
before my Lord Hategood, charged with 'disturbing the trade of the
town, creating divisions, and making converts to their opinions in
contempt of the law of the Prince.'
Faithful begins with an admission which would have made it difficult
for Hategood to let him off, for he says that the Prince they talked
of, being Beelzebub, the enemy of the Lord, he defied him and all his
angels. Three witnesses were then called: Envy, Superstition, and
Pickthank.
Envy says that Faithful regards neither prince nor people, but does
all he can to possess men with disloyal notions, which he call
principles of faith and holiness.
Superstition says that he knows little of him, but has heard him say
that 'our religion is naught, and such by which no man can please God,
from which saying his Lordship well knows will follow that we are yet
in our sins, and finally shall be damned.'
Pickthank deposes that he has heard Faithful rail on Beelzebub, and
speak contemptuously of his honourable friends my Lord Old Man, my
Lord Carnal Delight, my Lord Luxurious, my Lord Desire of Vain Glory,
my Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, and the rest of the nobility,
besides which he has railed against his lordship on the bench himself,
calling him an ungodly villain.
The evidence was perfectly true, and the prisoner, when called on for
his defence, confirmed it. He says (avoiding the terms in which he was
said to rail and the like) that 'the Prince of the town, with all the
rabblement of his attendants by this gentleman named, are more fit for
a being in hell than in this town or country.'
Lord Hategood has been supposed to have been drawn from one or other
of Charles II.'s judges, perhaps from either Twisden or Chester, who
had the conversation with Bunyan's wife. But it is difficult to see
how either one or the other could have acted otherwise than they did.
Faithful might be quite right. Hell might be and probably was the
proper place for Beelzebub, and for all persons holding authority
under him. But as a matter of fact, a form of society did for some
purpose or other exist, and had been permitted to exist for 5000
years, owning Beelzebub's sovereignty. It must defend itself, or must
cease to be, and it could not be expected to make no effort at
self-preservation. Faithful had come to Vanity Fair to make a
revolution--a revolution extremely desirable, but one which it was
unreasonable to expect the constituted authorities to allow to go
forward. It was not a case of false witness. A prisoner who admits
that he has taught the people that their Prince ought to be in hell,
and has called the judge an ungodly villain, cannot complain if he is
accused of preaching rebellion.
Lord Hategood charges the jury, and explains the law. 'There was an
Act made,' he says, 'in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant to our
Prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should multiply and
grow too strong for him, their males should be thrown into the river.
There was also an Act made in the days of Nebuchadnezzar the Great,
that whoever would not fall down and worship his golden image should
be thrown into a fiery furnace. There was also an Act made in the days
of Darius that whoso for some time called upon any God but him should
be cast into the lion's den. Now the substance of these laws this
rebel hath broken, not only in thought (which is not to be borne), but
also in word and deed, which must, therefore, be intolerable. For that
of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition to prevent mischief,
no crime being yet apparent. For the second and third you see his
disputations against our religion, and for the treason he hath
confessed he deserveth to die the death.'
'Then went the jury out, whose names were Mr. Blindman, Mr. Nogood,
Mr. Malice, Mr. Lovelust, Mr. Liveloose, Mr. Heady, Mr. Highmind, Mr.
Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hatelight, and Mr. Implacable, who
every one gave in his private verdict against him among themselves,
and afterwards unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the
judge. And first, Mr. Blindman, the foreman, said: I see clearly that
this man is a heretic. Then said Mr. No Good, Away with such a fellow
from the earth. Aye, said Mr. Malice, I hate the very looks of him.
Then said Mr. Lovelust, I could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr.
Liveloose, for he would always be condemning my way. Hang him, hang
him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. Highmind. My heart riseth
against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr. Liar. Hanging is
too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us despatch him out of the
way, said Mr. Hatelight. Then, said Mr. Implacable, might I have all
the world given me, I could not be reconciled to him; therefore, let
us forthwith bring him in guilty of death.'
Abstract qualities of character were never clothed in more substantial
flesh and blood than these jurymen. Spenser's knights in the 'Fairy
Queen' are mere shadows to them. Faithful was, of course, condemned,
scourged, buffeted, lanced in his feet with knives, stoned, stabbed,
at last burned, and spared the pain of travelling further on the
narrow road. A chariot and horses were waiting to bear him through the
clouds, the nearest way to the Celestial Gate. Christian, who it seems
had been remanded, contrives to escape. He is joined by Hopeful, a
convert whom he has made in the town, and they pursue their journey in
company. A second person is useful dramatically, and Hopeful takes
Faithful's place. Leaving Vanity Fair, they are again on the Pilgrim's
road. There they encounter Mr. Bye-ends. Bye-ends comes from the town
of Plain-Speech, where he has a large kindred, My Lord Turnabout, my
Lord Timeserver, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Two Tongues, the parson of
the parish. Bye-ends himself was married to a daughter of Lady
Feignings. Bunyan's invention in such things was inexhaustible.
They have more trials of the old kind with which Bunyan himself was so
familiar. They cross the River of Life and even drink at it, yet for
all this and directly after, they stray into Bye Path Meadow. They
lose themselves in the grounds of Doubting Castle, and are seized upon
by Giant Despair--still a prey to doubt--still uncertain whether
religion be not a dream, even after they have fought with wild beasts
in Vanity Fair and have drunk of the water of life. Nowhere does
Bunyan show better how well he knew the heart of man. Christian even
thinks of killing himself in the dungeons of Doubting Castle. Hopeful
cheers him up, they break their prison, recover the road again, and
arrive at the Delectable Mountains in Emmanuel's own land. There it
might be thought the danger would be over, but it is not so. Even in
Emmanuel's Land there is a door in the side of a hill which is a
byeway to hell, and beyond Emmanuel's Land is the country of conceit,
a new and special temptation for those who think that they are near
salvation. Here they encounter 'a brisk lad of the neighbourhood,'
needed soon after for a particular purpose, who is a good liver, prays
devoutly, fasts regularly, pays tithes punctually, and hopes that
everyone will get to heaven by the religion which he professes,
provided he fears God and tries to do his duty. The name of this brisk
lad is Ignorance. Leaving him, they are caught in a net by Flatterer,
and are smartly whipped by 'a shining one,' who lets them out of it.
False ideas and vanity lay them open once more to their most dangerous
enemy. They meet a man coming towards them from the direction in which
they are going. They tell him that they are on the way to Mount Zion.
He laughs scornfully and answers:--
'There is no such place as you dream of in all the world. When I was
at home in my own country, I heard as you now affirm, and from hearing
I went out to see; and have been seeking this city these twenty years,
but I find no more of it than I did the first day I went out. I am
going back again and will seek to refresh myself with things which I
then cast away for hopes of that which I now see is not.'
Still uncertainty--even on the verge of eternity--strange, doubtless,
and reprehensible to Right Reverend persons, who never 'cast away'
anything; to whom a religious profession has been a highway to
pleasure and preferment, who live in the comfortable assurance that as
it has been in this life so it will be in the next. Only moral
obliquity of the worst kind could admit a doubt about so excellent a
religion as this. But Bunyan was not a Right Reverend. Christianity
had brought him no palaces and large revenues, and a place among the
great of the land. If Christianity was not true his whole life was
folly and illusion, and the dread that it might be so clung to his
belief like its shadow.
The way was still long. The pilgrims reach the Enchanted Ground and
are drowsy and tired. Ignorance comes up with them again. He talks
much about himself. He tells them of the good motives that come into
his mind and comfort him as he walks. His heart tells him that he has
left all for God and Heaven. His belief and his life agree together,
and he is humbly confident that his hopes are well-founded. When they
speak to him of Salvation by Faith and Conviction by Sin, he cannot
understand what they mean. As he leaves them they are reminded of one
Temporary, 'once a forward man in religion.' Temporary dwelt in
Graceless, 'a town two miles from Honesty, next door to one Turnback.'
He 'was going on pilgrimage, but became acquainted with one Save Self,
and was never more heard of.'
These figures all mean something. They correspond in part to Bunyan's
own recollection of his own trials. Partly he is indulging his humour
by describing others who were more astray than he was. It was over at
last: the pilgrims arrive at the land of Beulah, the beautiful sunset
after the storms were all past. Doubting Castle can be seen no more,
and between them and their last rest there remains only the deep river
over which there is no bridge, the river of Death. On the hill beyond
the waters glitter the towers and domes of the Celestial City; but
through the river they must first pass, and they find it deeper or
shallower according to the strength of their faith. They go through,
Hopeful feeling the bottom all along; Christian still in character,
not without some horror, and frightened by hobgoblins. On the other
side they are received by angels, and are carried to their final home,
to live for ever in the Prince's presence. Then follows the only
passage which the present writer reads with regret in this admirable
book. It is given to the self-righteous Ignorance who, doubtless, had
been provoking with 'his good motives that comforted him as he
walked;' but Bunyan's zeal might have been satisfied by inflicting a
lighter chastisement upon him. He comes up to the river. He crosses
without the difficulties which attended Christian and Hopeful. 'It
happened that there was then at the place one Vain Hope, a Ferryman,
that with his boat' (some viaticum or priestly absolution) 'helped him
over.' He ascends the hill, and approaches the city, but no angels are
in attendance, 'neither did any man meet him with the least
encouragement.' Above the gate there was the verse written--'Blessed
are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the Tree
of Life, and may enter in through the gate into the city.' Bunyan, who
believed that no man could keep the commandments, and had no right to
anything but damnation, must have introduced the words as if to mock
the unhappy wretch who, after all, had tried to keep the commandments
as well as most people, and was seeking admittance, with a conscience
moderately at ease. 'He was asked by the men that looked over the
gate--Whence come you and what would you have?' He answered, 'I have
eaten and drunk in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our
street.' Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go
in and show it to the king. So he fumbled in his bosom for one and
found none. Then said they, 'Have you none?' But the man answered
never a word. So they told the king but he would not come down to see
him, but commanded the two shining ones that conducted Christian and
Hopeful to the city to go out and take Ignorance and bind him hand and
foot, and have him away. Then they took him up and carried him through
the air to the door in the side of the hill, and put him in there.
'Then,' so Bunyan ends, 'I saw that there was a way to Hell even from
the gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction; so I
awoke, and behold it was a dream!'
Poor Ignorance! Hell--such a place as Bunyan imagined Hell to be--was
a hard fate for a miserable mortal who had failed to comprehend the
true conditions of justification. We are not told that he was a vain
boaster. He could not have advanced so near to the door of Heaven if
he had not been really a decent man, though vain and silly. Behold, it
was a dream! The dreams which come to us when sleep is deep on the
soul may be sent direct from some revealing power. When we are near
waking, the supernatural insight may be refracted through human
theory.
Charity will hope that the vision of Ignorance cast bound into the
mouth of Hell, when he was knocking at the gate of Heaven, came
through Homer's ivory gate, and that Bunyan here was a mistaken
interpreter of the spiritual tradition. The fierce inferences of
Puritan theology are no longer credible to us; yet nobler men than the
Puritans are not to be found in all English history. It will be well
if the clearer sight which enables us to detect their errors, enables
us also to recognise their excellence.
The second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' like most second parts,
is but a feeble reverberation of the first. It is comforting, no
doubt, to know that Christian's wife and children were not left to
their fate in the City of Destruction. But Bunyan had given us all
that he had to tell about the journey, and we do not need a repetition
of it. Of course there, are touches of genius. No writing of Bunyan's
could be wholly without it. But the rough simplicity is gone, and
instead of it there is a tone of sentiment which is almost mawkish.
Giants, dragons, and angelic champions carry us into a spurious fairy
land, where the knight-errant is a preacher in disguise. Fair ladies
and love matches, however decorously chastened, suit ill with the
sternness of the mortal conflict between the soul and sin. Christiana
and her children are tolerated for the pilgrim's sake to whom they
belong. Had they appealed to our interest on their own merits, we
would have been contented to wish them well through their
difficulties, and to trouble ourselves no further about them.