and edition, something of the old spelling has been preserved,

and the capitals and italics of the ten editions published in Emits a brighter ray." Banyan's lifetime, the best reading from each of which has been

its humble author, who could not, as he tells us in the most headlong, and forgot everything. *b It may not be unprofitable interesting of autobiographies, "boast of noble blood, and of to contrast this view of life by a typical unbeliever of our own

any high-born state, according to the flesh," there can be no doubt of the truth of Bunyan's statement in the introductory verses to the second part of his great prose allegory, that his Pilgrim was as much a favourite, even in his lifetime, with scholars and men of the world, as he was with the poor and that of the poet's old man. illiterate. It is not easy, indeed, to conceive how it could have It is certain that Bunyan was not a man of " culture," in the been otherwise. The great narrative power—as great as that of any novelist—displayed in the first part of the Progress, its bably no writer of equal eminence knew so little. His imagine- pellucid, vigorous, racy, Saxon prose, its intense sincerity and lion and taste were solely fostered by constant study of our directness, its broad humanity and catholicity of spirit, its grand old version of the Bible and Fox' s Book of Martyrs. Of masterly grasp of character, its humour, pathos, and keen the Greek and Latin classics he knew absolutely nothing ; yet

satire, its dramatic dialogues—often as sparkling and rapid as the Bible was more to him than these can ever be to the modern any to be found in our best "genteel " comedies—its quick man of letters. For while his profound belief in the Bible enabled succession of incident and adventure, and its clearness of vision him to reproduce much of its spirit as well as its form in his

and constant picturesqueness, could hardly have failed at any man of taste who read the work time to be recognised by every subject of much of the heathen writings must prevent them from with unbiassed mind. The allegorical personages are all sub- ever reproducing in their own compositions anything more than stantial flesh and blood, and belong as much to the human the mere form of the ancient classics. And the spirit of a work family in all ages as any of the types of character bequeathed is, after all, the essential thing. It is the thorough earnestness tone by Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Fielding. Who does not know, and spontaneity of Bunyan's allegory which have given it for instance, Talkative, the tall man, something more comely at a its perennial value and charm for us. And it is the lack of distance than at hand, the son of Saywell, and dwelling in Pratingincerity and directness in a great deal of the really clever writings of "our noble selves" which makes it such a weariness Row, who "will talk when on the ale-bench of religions matters,

and the more drink he bath in his crown, the more of these things the flesh to read. Banyan is probably the most intense of he bath in his mouth ;" Formalist and Hypocrisy, who, when all our writers; at times he is as intense as Dante himself, and much more so than Milton ever is. The reason of this, no doubt., Christian speaks his mind to them, "give no answer, only look

upon each other and laugh ;" By-ends, Mr. Facing-both-ways, is, that while Christian's adventures were profoundly real to their and Mr. Anything, all three of the town of Fair-speech, or narrator, much of Paradise Lost was as unreal to its author as Atheist, whom Christian and Hopeful perceive afar off, "coming it undoubtedly is to its readers in the present day.

softly and alone, all along the highway to meet them," and who, It is to the immunity from other cares and occupations which when the pilgrims inform him they are going to the Mount Banyan's imprisonment gave him that we are indebted for he Sion, " falls into a very great laughter," and assures them there greatest work, the first part of The Pilgrims Progress. If is no such place, that he had been farther than they in search Cervantes and Bunyan had never been in prison, if Christopher of it, and adds, "I am going back again, and will seek to refresh Smart had never been confined in a madhouse, no revelation of myself with the things that I then cast away, for hopes of that their highest powers would probably ever have been made, Don which I now see is not I' Quixote, The Pilgrim's Progress, and the Bong to David, would For description, where shall we find anything more beautiful not have been produced, and the present generation would never than in that short sentence of wonderful prose-melody in which have heard the names of their authors.

• The Piteriue• Progress. By John Banyan. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Bor. John Brown. B.A. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1W.

we are told that " the Pilgrim they laid in a large upper Chamber,

Literary Ouppirment. whose window opened towards the Sun rising ; the name of the

Chamber was Peace, where he slept till break of day ; and then

LONDON MARCH 26, 1887. he awoke and sang ;" or more terrible than the Dream of Judg- ment in the Interpreter's House ; or more profoundly pathetic B 0 0 11 S. than the account of the journey through the valley of the shadow

of death, or of the final passage over the river of death to the Heavenly Jerusalem at the close of the narrative P For keen THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" satire, it would be difficult to surpass the famous trial-scene in IT is a real pleasure to renew one's acquaintance with the master- Vanity Fair, with its immortal judge and jury. And for humour, piece of the once despised tinker of Bedford, whom Cowper was it is no less evident in the appellations he has so felicitously given afraid to name, in the delightful reprint of it just issued by to his allegorical characters than it is in many of his dialogues.

Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The paper is good, the type Some people—chiefly those who reject Christianity altogether, admirably clear, and the binding tasteful; and when it is added or who, not being Puritans, can see nothing good in the Puritan that the author of what is probably the best life of Bunyan creed—have objected to what they are pleased to call " the that has yet appeared is the editor, no higher commendation gloomy character " of Bunyan's masterpiece. For our part, we can be given. In a very judicious and interesting introduction, regard it as one of the most cheerful, humane, and hope-inspiring the editor gives all the necessary information about the circum- books ever written. Christian, it is true, has many difficulties stances under which the two parts of The Pilgrim's Progress were to encounter, he often misses the right road, he sinks into that written, and the numerous editions and translations of them Slough of Despond with which we are all acquainted, he fights which have appeared since Banyan first gave them to the world. with many monsters, and has his doubts and dreary misgivings Though the reprint does not purport to be a fac-simile of any even to the last ; yet, for all this, hope never long abandons him, but rather,— .‘ AB darker grows the night,

adopted, appear to have been faithfully reproduced. Such por- Deprived of the belief which some persist in thinking gloomy, tions of the allegory as do not explain themselves—and it is his pilgrimage would have been as meaningless and discouraging needless to say they are not many—are satisfactorily interpreted as that to which Leopardi has compared human life. To for us in the notes at the end of the volume; and the few words the eye of the sad Italian poet, who had ceased to cling to the need by Bunyan in a sense which has now become obsolete, are Christian's cross of hope, human life presented itself in the guise also explained. A reproduction of some of the quaint old illus. of a feeble, hoary, old man, half-clothed and barefoot, with a trations which delighted our simpler-minded ancestors would most grievous burden upon his back, who, in wind and tempest, have left nothing further to be desired by the most enthusiastic sunshine and cold, ran panting along over mountain and valley, of Banyan's admirers. rugged stones, and deep sands, and through thorny brakes, It is difficult to say anything new about a work which has passed over torrents and ponds, fell and rose again; and, lacerated been read and praised by all classes, high and low, cultured and and bleeding, sped on ever faster and faster, without repose or uncultured, for more than two centuries. Though the " wits " refreshment, until the goal of his long and toilsome journey was

of the last century might "sneer " at the "deserved fame " of abyss, into which he tumbled

reached,—a vast and horrible a

its humble author, who could not, as he tells us in the most headlong, and forgot everything. *b It may not be unprofitable interesting of autobiographies, "boast of noble blood, and of to contrast this view of life by a typical unbeliever of our own

century with that presented in the pages of Bunyan's allegory, which seems, in some respects, to have suggested Leopardi's gruesome picture. Christian's pilgrimage, with all its difficulties and hardships, appears light and pleasant as compared with modern sense of that word. Of purely secular literature prc- t great allegory, the necessary lack of faith of scholars in the s to The second part of The Pilgrim's Progress has never enjoyed

• See Canto netturno di un Pattore errant. deli' Asia. an equal degree of popularity with the first, nor has it, in our opinion, deserved to do so. It is, indeed, a vastly inferior work. It has nothing of the interest, vigour, concentration, and harmony of the earlier portion ; its slips of grammar are more frequent, and there is a vulgarity of language and sentiment of which we find no trace in the first part. Its weak, diffuse, and ineffective opening lines—so different from the grandly simple and vivid opening lines of the first part, which every one knows by heart—prepare ns to expect little from what is to follow ; and our expectation is certainly not deceived. There is so much talk and so little incident, that one might almost be tempted to believe that Bunyan's own Talkative had written the work. The Life of Mr. Badman, by which, as Mr. Brown informs us in his introduction, it was Bunyan's first intention to complete his masterpiece, and of which we should be glad to see a good reprint, appears to ns much more worthy to follow the account of Christian's pilgrimage than does the tame and uninteresting narrative of the adventures of Christiana and her children. It seems not unlikely that the latter was written in deference to the wishes of the weaker part of the sect to which Bunyan belonged,—chiefly the women and children, who would be terrified by the perils which beset Christian from the begin- ning to the end of his journey, and could have no sympathy with his intellectual difficulties, which they would fail even to comprehend. Yet the second part is not wholly unworthy of the author of the first. There is a touch of the old humour in making Honesty a native of the town of Stupidity, and the character of Mr. Fearing is almost as good as any that Bunyan has drawn. It is in this part, too, that we have the striking picture of the Man with the Muck-rake, and the beautiful simile of the Flowers. And it ought to be remembered that Dr. John- son included The Pilgrim's Progress among the very few works which he wished longer.

The intolerance and .gloomy fanaticism which characterised most of the Puritans of Bunyan's day, and from which it must be admitted that Bunyan himself was not wholly free, are held in just abhorrence by all intelligent and enlightened Christians of our own time. Yet it should never be forgotten that to Puritanism, with all its faults, we owe one of the two greatest epic poems of the modern world, and incomparably the best prose allegory which has ever been produced.