_Bunyan and the Visions of Heaven and Hell_ (Vol. iii., p. 89.).--MR.
OFFOR has very satisfactorily shown that Bunyan could not, from its
grandiloquent style, have been the author of the _Visions of Heaven and
Hell_, attributed to him in an edition of that work published in the
reign of George I., entitled, _The Visions of John Bunyan, being his
last Remains_.
This title must have been a surreptitious one, for, since MR. OFFOR made
the above communication, I have obtained a copy of this scarce book
published _in the previous reign_, under its legitimate title (as in the
Sunderland copy of 1771, mentioned at p. 70. _supra_), and said to be
"By G. L. [Greek: philanthrôpo.] London, printed for _John Gwillim_,
against _Crossby Square_ in Bishopsgate-street, 1711."
In his address "To the Reader" (also signed G. L.), the author even
makes the following direct allusion to Bunyan's allegory:
"And since the _Way_ to Heaven has been so taking under the
similitude of a _dream_, why should not the _Journey's End_ be as
acceptable under the similitude of a _vision_? Nay, why should it
not be more acceptable, since the end is preferable to the
_means_, and _Heaven_ to the _Way_ that brings us thither? _The
Pilgrim_ met with many difficulties; but here they are all over.
All storms and tempests here are hush'd in silence and serenity."
It will therefore, I think, be admitted that the name of Bunyan ought no
longer to be associated with this work, and that all inferences drawn
from the fallacy of his having been the author of it should henceforth
be disregarded.
It would, however, be desirable, if possible, to ascertain who G. L.
really was, and how the spurious title-page came to be affixed by
"Edward Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass upon London Bridge," to his
edition of this allegory?