JOHN BUNYAN.*
MR. MAJOR is a kind of Old Mortality among the monuments of old English genius. His edition of WALTON was a curious and beautiful renovation of that fine specimen of the ancient order of literature in England ; not done poorly, out of a mercantile spirit, like a church- * The Pilgrim's Progress : with a Life of John Bunyan. By Robert Southey, Esq. LL.D. Poet Laureate, -&c. &c. Illustrated with Engravings. London, 1830. • 'Warden's repairs from the parish treasurerbut with the liberal spirit, the devOtional feeling, of a donor and benefactor, almost -superstitiously impressed with the sacredness of his task. He has now undertaken BUNYAN, the quaint genius of both the Young and the Old Man's Library and as he pursued WALTON through his minor performances, so may we probably expect that he will not desert the works of the glorious old tinker of Elstow, before Mr. Badman's History and the Holy City have seen the light under favour of a similar appropriate garb. Next, after duly installing them among his series of the classics of the Old and Young, we recommend him to adopt DEFOE and Robinson Crusoe ; and if he can persuade Dr. SOUTHEY to sketch his life, a few pages from a kindred spirit may better illustrate the character of his genius than some modern quartos.
We are not, however, of opinion that the prefixed life of Bum-
YAN is entirely worthy of its author's name : we should, simply on perusing it, as soon have attributed it to Dr. SOUTHEY, as he himself says he should believe the verses called The Devil's Thoughts" were written by Mr. PORSON. Not because there is anything in the biographicle unworthy of the author, but because it appears written without industry or deliberateness : it is its best praise that it is entirely taken from BUNYAN'S own account of himself;—it would not have been worse if the facts recorded by this singular man had passed through the alembic of an en- lightened thinker of the present century.
One of the most acceptable works to which 'a man of enlarged
mind and metaphysical habits of thinking could apply a portion of his time, would be an examination of the character of those sensations which fanatics of all ages have termed religious expe- rience. In the castle of Wartburg, LUTHER threw his inkstand at the Devil ; and BUNYAN was repeatedly called from heaven by the name of "Simon, Simon," and was repeatedly tempted by Satan to sell Christ ! "Sell him, sell him /- being perpetually rum,- in his ears, till the good tinker could neither eat, nor work, nor sleep.
"Some few days after the sermon, he was much ' followed,' he says, by these words of the gospel, ' Simon, Simon, behold Satan bath desired to have you!' He knew that it was a voice from within ; and yet it was so articulately distinct, so loud, and called, as he says, so strongly after him, that once in particular, when the words Simon ! Simon !' rung in his ears, he verily thought some man had called to him from a distance behind ; and though that was not his name, supposed nevertheless that it was addressed to him, and looked round suddenly to see by whom."! —Page xxv. It intermixt itself with whatever he thought or did. " I could neither eat my food," he says, " stoop for a pin, chop a stick, or cast my eye to look on this or on that, but still the temptation would come : 'Sell Christ for this, sell Christ for that ; sell Him, sell Him, sell Him. Sometimes it would run in my thoughts not so little as a hundred times together- ' Sell Him, sell Him, sell Him, sell Him.' Against which, I may say, for whole ,lours together, I have been forced to stand as continually lean- ing and forcing my spirit against it; lest haply before I were aware, some wicked thought might arise in my heart, that might consent thereto, and sometimes the Tempter would make me believe I had consented to it, but then should I be tortured upon a rack for whole days together."—P. xxxL. "One morning as he lay in bed, the wicked suggestion still running in
his mind, ' Sell Him, sell Him, sell Him, sell Him,' as fast as a roan could speak,—and he answering as fast' No, no, not for thousands, thou- sands, thousands,' till he was almost out of breath,-:--he felt this thought pass through his heart, • Let Him go if he will ; ' and it seemed to him that his heart freely consented thereto. Oh,' he exclaims, the diligence of Satan ! Oh, the desperateness of man's heart ! ' Now was the battle won, and down fell I, as a bird that is shot, from the top of a tree, into great guilt and fearful despair. Then, getting out of my bed, I went moping into the field ; but God knows, with as heavy a heart as mortal man, I think, could bear ; where, for the space of two hours, I was like a man bereft of life, and as now, past all recovery, and bound over to eter- nal punishment."—P. xxx.
Such was for a long time the state of mind of the author of Pilgrim's Progress, one of the most perfect and lively allegories from the pen of man : such is the truth of' the saying that allies great wit to great madness. Had BUNYAN not had a very strong
body, he would have died under his trials : had he not had a very strong mind, he would have ended his days in the county asylum, —if he had not, like his admirer and eulogist COWPER, found some old woman to tend him in his fits of despondency, for the sake of the satisfaction afforded by his society in lucid intervals.
The " Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale,
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail," like the poet, had an imagination which, when harnessed to a task,. pursued a course of brilliancy and beauty, but which, when left to its wanderings, sought the depths of utter darkness.
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