What the first I took my pen in hand,

T

fr to write, I did not understand

ir ell should make a little book iha mode; nay, I had undertook se another; waich, when almost done, • I was covare, I thus begun.

A Ws it was: I writing of the way of alts in this our gospel-day, Iniy into an allegory,

Alout their journey, and the way to glory, fire than twenty things, which I set down:

de, I twenty more had in my crown,

i dhey agun began to multiply,

-p. *k* that fom the coals of fire do fly. 2. then, omongit I, if that you breed so fast, t you by yourselves, lest you at last,

12 prove ed infi vitum, an eat out

kat I already am about.

I die; but yet I did not think to a 1 the world my pen and ink mede; I only thought to make vrot whit; or did I undertake

'ease my neighbour; no, not I,
mself to gratify.

*te, did I but y cant seasons spend
my se. Zoble; ror did 1 intend

sert myself in doing this,

er thoughts, which made me do ar iss. iset pen to paper with delight,

had my thoughts in black and white. phong to Try method by the end,

I p'd it came; and so I penn'd
ri at last it came to be,

A

Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so. Some said, It might do good; others said, No. Now I was 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.

For thought I, some I see would have it done,
Though others in that cbann I do not run
To prove then who advised for the best,
Thus I thought fit to put it to the text
I farther thought, if now I did deny
Those that would have it, to gratify,

I did not know, but hinder them I might
Of that which would to dieta be grent delight;
For those which were not for its coming for 1,
I said to them, Offend you I am loth:

Yet since your brett ren ples- d with ir ke,
Forbear to judge till you do further sce.

If that you would not read, let it alere;
Some love the meat, some to pick a bone;
Yea, that I might them better moder. te,
I did too with them thus expostulate.
May I not write in such a style as this?
In such a method too, and yet not mis
My end, thy good? Why may it not be ?
Dark clouds bring waters, when the big

none;

s, others, that I might see whether ndemn them, or them justify;

d Let him live; some Let him die;

She spews out both, erd makes their blessing

null.

You see the ways the fishern an doth take

To catch the sh? what engine. de d. ne make?

Behold! how he engageth all his wits;
Als his snare, lit, augles, hooks and nets;
Yet fi h there be, that neither hook nor line,
Nor snares, nor net, nor engine can make thine:
They must be grop'd for and be tickled too,
Or they will not be catch'd, whate'er you do.
How does the fowler seek to catch his game
By divers means? All which one cannot name:
His gun, his nets, his lime-twigs, Light and bell;
He creeps, he goes, he stands; yea, who can tell
Of all his postures? yet there's none of these
Will make him master of what fowls he please."
Yea, he must pipe and whistle to catch this;
Yet if he does so, that bird he will miss.

If that a pearl nay on a to id's head dwell,
And may be found too in an oyster shell;
If things that promise nothing, do contain
What better is than goid; who will disdain,
That have an inkling of it, there to look
That they may find it! Now my little book
(Tho' void or all these paintings that may make
It with this or the other man to take)
Is not without these things that do excel,
What do in brave, but empty notions dwell.
Well, yet I am not fully satisfied,

That this your book will stand, when soundly tried.

Why, what's the matter? It is dark. What though?

But it is feigned. What of that? I trow,
Sne men, by feigned words as dark as mine;
Make truth to spangle, and its rays to shine!
But they want solidness: speak, man, thy mind;
They drown the weak; metaphors make us blind.
Solility, indeed, becomes the pen

Of I'm that writeth things divine to men:
But just I needs want solidness, becтise
By : etaphors I speak? Were not God's laws,
is gospel laws, in older tine held forth
7 shadows types, and metaphors? Yet loth
'I any sober man be to find fault

them, lest he be found for to assault
hest wisdom: No: he rather stoops,
es to find out what by pins and loops,
and sheep, by heifers and by rams,
ad herbs, and by the blood of lambs,
th to him; and fall happy he
the light and grace that in them be!
too forward, therefore, to conclude
zant solidness; that I am rude;

ngs solid in show not solid be:
ains in parables despise not we,
A thins most hurtful lightly we receive,
and things that good are of our souls bereave.
My dark and clondy words they do but hold
The truth, as cabinets enclose the gold.

The prophets used much by metaphors To set forth truth; yea, whoso considers

Christ, his apostles to ), el all plaidy
That truths to this day in suel, maitles 'e.
I am afraid to say that Holy Writ
Which for its style and phrase, puts down all
wit,

Is every where so full of all the things,
Dark figures, allegories, yet there springs
From that same book, that lustre and these rays
Of light, that turn our darkest nights to days,
Come, let ny earper to his life now look,
And find there darker line than in my book
He findeth any; yea, and let him know
That in his best things there are wese lines too.
May we but stand before impartia! men,

To his poor one, I dare adventure ten
That they will take my meaning in thee thes,
Far better than his lies in silver shrine.
Come. Truth, although in swaddling dents, I tine
Informs the judgment, rectifies the mind;
Peases the understanding, makes the will
Submit, the memory also it doth fill
With what doth our imagination please:
Likewise it tends our troubies to appease

Sound words, I know, Tim thy i to use,
And old wives fables he is to refuse;
But yet grave Paul Lim no where did forbid
The use of parables; in which lay hid

That gold, those pears, and precious stones tha

Were

Worth digging for, and that with greatest care.
Let me add one word more: O man of Ged,
Art thou offended? Post thou wish I had
Put forth my matter in another 18?
Or that I had in things been more express?
To those that are my betters, as is fit,
Three things let me propound, then I submit:
1. I find not that I am denied the use
Of this method, so I do not : buse
Put on the words things, readers or Lende
In handling figures of similitude,
In application; but all that I may
Seek the advance of truth this or that way.
Denied, did I say? Nay, I have have
(Examples to, and that from them that have
God better pleased, by ther words er ways,
Than any man that breathe snow in on days)
Thus to express my mind, this to declare
Things unto thee that execkuntest are.

2. I find that men (as high as trees) will write
Dialogue ways; yet no man dot then slight
For writing so: indeed if they, abuse
Truth, cursed be they, and the craft the, use
To that intent; but yet let truth be tree
To make her saliies upon thee and me,
Which way it pleases God; tor who knows Low
Better than he that tught us first to p'th,
To guide our minds and pers for his desiga?
And he makes 'ase is usher in divine.

This book, it chalketh out before thine eyes
The man that seeks the everlasting prize:

It shows you whence he comes, whither he goes:
What he leaves undone, also what he does:
It shows you how he runs and runs,
Till he unto the gate of glory comes.

It shows, too, who set out for life amain,
As if the lasting crown they would obtain:
Here also you may see the reason why
They lose their labour, and like fools do die.
This book will make a traveller of thee,
If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be;
It will direct thee to the holy land,
If thou wilt its directions understand;
Yea, it will make the slothful active be;
The blind also delightful things to see.

Art thou for something rare and profitable?
Or wouldst thou see a truth within a fable?
Art thou forgetful? or wouldst thou remember
From new-year's to the last of December?
Then read my fancies; they will stick like burrs,
And may be to the helpless comforters.
This book is wrote 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 melancholy? Wouldst thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly? Wouldst thou read riddles, and their explanation? Or else be drowned in thy contemplation?

Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou

see

A man i' th' 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?
Or wouldst 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 bless'd or not,
By reading the same lines? Oh then come hither!
And lay my book, thy head, and heart together.
JOHN BUNYAN.