TWE

Hopeful did also endeavour to comfort him, saying, Brother, I see the gate.

OXFORD;
Published by Bartlett and Winton.

THE MANNER OF HIS SETTING OUT, HIS DANGEROUS JOURNEY, AND SAFL

ARRIVAL AT THE DESIRED COUNTRY:

BY

JOHN BUNYAN,

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 thus 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 their 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 they again began to multiply,
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay, then thought 1, 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 know not what: nor did I undertake