15. Cowper's apostrophe to Bunyan—

'Oh thou, whom, borne on fancy's eager wing;

Back to the season of life's happy spring;

I pleased remember, and, while memory yet

Holds fast her office here, can never forget.

Just, man Dreamer! in whose well-toed tale

Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;

Whose humorous vein, strode sense, and simple style,

May teach the gayest, make the gravest smile;

Witty, and well employed, and like thy Lord,

Sperging in pursues to anguish Word.

I name thee not, lest so despised a name

Should move a steer at thy deserved time;

Yet e'en in transitory life's late day.

That mingles all my brown with sober gray,

Revere the man, whose PICTURE marks the road,

And grades the PARGES of the soul to find.

'Twere well with most, if books that could escape

Their childhood, pleased them at a riper age;

The man, approving what had charmed the boy,

Would die at last in comfort, peace, and joy.'

How rapid has been the change in public opinion since Cowper's line was written—

'Lest so despised a name!'

One of the most magnificent American steamers now bears the alluring name of The John Bunyan; and in 1849 an advertisement appeared in the London Papers: 'For HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, will be despatched positively on the 20th of June, the splendid fast sailing-ship John Bunyan.'

The influence that the 'Pilgrim's Progress' had upon a late learned and zealous divine, is well described in the autobiography of the celebrated DR. ADAM CLARKE.

A child's view of the 'Pilgrim's Progress'—

At this early age he read the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' as he would read a book of chivalry. Christian was a great hero, by whom the most appalling difficulties were surmounted, the most incredible labors performed, powerful enchantments dissolved, saints conquered, and devils quelled. It was not likely that he would see it as a spiritual story, and, therefore, it was no wonder that he could not comprehend how Christian and Hopeful could, submit to live several days and nights in the dungeon of Doubling Castle, under the torture of Grant Desper, while the former had a key in his bosom which could open every lock in that castle. LORD KAIMES, who did not in the slightest degree partake with Bunyan in his feelings of veneration for Christianity, admires the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' as being composed in a style enlivened like that of Homer, by a proper mixture of the dramatic and narrative.

MR. GRAINGER, who was of the high church party, in his Encyclopaed History of England, calls it 'Bunyan's masterpiece; one of the most popular, and, I will add, one of the most ingenious books in the English language.'

DR. S. JOHNSON, that unwieldy and uncouth Leviathan of English literature, who was so thorough bred a churchman as to starve himself on a crossed bun on Good Friday, and to revel in roast beet and good cheer on the day dedicated to Christ's mass; who was so well taught in the established church as to pray for his wife 'Tetty' thirty years after her decease; yet, even he, with his deep-rooted prejudices against dissenters, cannot withhold his need of praise—he describes the 'Pilgrim's Progress' as 'a work of original genius, and one of the very few books which every reader wishes had been longer.' 'Johnson praised John Bunyan highly: his "Pilgrim's Progress" has great merit, both for invention, imagination, and the conduct of the story; and it has had the best example of its merit, the general and continued approbation of mankind. Few books, I believe, have had a more extensive sale. It is remarkable, that it begins very much like Dante, yet there was no translation of Dante when he wrote. There is reason to think that he had read Spenser.'

¹ Mrs. P. M. A. A. A.

² Boswell's Life of Johnson, 8vo, vol. ii. p. 219.

'It was by no common merit that the illiterate-sectary extracted praise like this from the most pedantic of critics, and the most bigoted of Churchmen and Tories.'

A deeply read, learned, and highly esteemed clergyman told me that when he was young, placed under peculiar circumstances, he read the 'Pilgrim's Progress' many times; for when he arrived at the 'Conclusion,' he never thought of changing his book, but turning to the first page, started again with poor Christian, and never felt weary of his company. Well might Dr. Johnson say, it is one of the few books in which one can never possibly arrive at the last page.

DR. FRANKLIN, whose sound judgment renders his opinion peculiarly gratifying, in his praise of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' comes home to the feelings of all who have read this universally admired book:

'Honest John Bunyan is the first I know of who has misled narrative and dialogue together—a mode of writing very engaging to the reader, who, in the most interesting passages, finds himself admitted, as it were, into the company, and present at the conversation.'

TOPLADY speaks with the warmth of a Christian, who not only admired, but understood and felt its important truths:

'The "Pilgrim's Progress" is the finest allegorical work extant; describing every stage of a Christian's experience, from conversion to glorification, in the most artless simplicity of language; yet peculiarly rich with spiritual unction, and glowing with the most vivid, just, and well-conducted machinery throughout. It is, in short, a masterpiece of piety and genius; and will, we doubt not, be of standing use to the people of God, so long as the sun and moon endure.'

And in his diary, Sunday, Feb. 7, 1768:—

'In the evening, read Bunyan's "Pilgrim." What a stiff, sapless, tedious piece of work is that written by Bishop Patrick! How does the unlearned tinker of Bedford outshine the Bishop of Ely! I have heard that his lordship wrote his Pilgrim by way of antidote against what he deemed the fanaticism of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim." But what a rich fund of heavenly experience, life, and sweetness, does the latter contain! How heavy, lifeless, and unevangelical, is the former! Such is the difference between writing from a worldly spirit and under the influence of the Spirit of God.' DR. RYLAND'S opinion was that

'As a popular practical writer, on a great variety of important subjects, for the use of the bulk of common Christians, I will dare to affirm that he has few equals in the Christian world. I am persuaded there never has been a writer in the English language whose works have spread so wide, and have been read by so many millions of people, as Mr. Bunyan's.'

1. Macaulay, Edinburgh Review, 1831.

2. At church, obliged to sit still, while a dull parson read equally dull sermons.

3. Private Life of Franklin.

4. Life and Writings of Toplady. Works, vol. i. p. 40. 8vo, 1825. It may be true that Patrick's Pilgrim was intended as an antidote to what he considered the fanaticism of Bunyan's other writings, but the Bishop's Pilgrim was published prior to that of John Bunyan.

The Great French Biography (Roman Catholic), having alluded to his employment in prison, adds,

'Mais il y écrivit aussi son fameux Voyage du Pèlerin, allégorie religieuse parfaitement soutenue, qui a en cinquante éditions, et a été traduite en plusieurs langues.'

JAMES MONTGOMERY:—

'It has been the lot of John Bunyan, an unlettered artisan, to do more than one in a hundred millions of human beings, even in civilized society, is usually able to do. He has produced a work of imagination, of such decided originality, as not only to have commanded public admiration on its first appearance, but amidst all changes of time and style, and modes of thinking, to have maintained its place in the popular literature of every succeeding age; with the probability that, so long as the language in which it is written endures, it will not cease to be read by a great number of the youth of all future generations, at that period of life when their minds, their imaginations, and their hearts are most impressible with moral excellence, splendid picture, and religious sentiment. The happy idea of representing his story under the similitude of a dream, enabled him to portray, with all the liveliness of reality, the scenes which passed before him. It makes the reader himself, like the author, a spectator of all that occurs; thus giving him a personal interest in the events, an individual sympathy for the actors and sufferers. It would be difficult to name another work of any kind in our native tongue of which so many editions have been printed, of which so many readers have lived and died, the character of whose lives and deaths must have been more or less affected by its lessons and examples, its fictions and realities.' DR. CHEEVER:—

'Perhaps no other work could be named which, admired by cultivated minds, has had, at the same time, such an ameliorating effect on the working classes in society as the "Pilgrim's Progress." It is a work so full of native good sense, that no mind can reau it without gaining in wisdom and vigour of judgment. It is one of the books that, by being connected with the nearest associations of childhood, always retain their hold on the heart; and it exerts a double influence when, at a graver age, and less under the despotism given to imagination in childhood, we read it with a serene and thoughtful perception of its meaning. How many children have become better citizens of the world through life, by the perusal of this book in infancy! How many pilgrims, in hours when perseverance was almost exhausted, and patience was yielding, and clouds and darkness were gathering, have felt a sudden return of animation and courage from the remembrance of Christian's severe conflicts, and his glorious entrance at last through the gates into the city!' ROBERT SOGHART:—

'Bunyan's fame may be literally said to have risen; beginning among the people, it made its way up to those who are called the public. In most instances, the many receive gradually and slowly the opinions of the few respecting literary merit; and sometimes, in association to such authority, profess with their lips an admiration of they know not what. But here the opinion of the multitude has been ratified by the judicious. The people knew what they admired. It is a book which makes it way through the fancy to the understanding and the heart. The child peruses it with wonder and delight; in youth we discover the genius which it displays; its worth is apprehended as we advance in years; and we perceive its 8. 8vo. Paris, 1810, tom. iii. p. 412.

merits feelingly in declining age. If it is not a well of English undecided, to which the poet as well as the philologist must repair, if they would drink of the living waters, it is a clear stream of current English—the vernacular speech of his age—sometimes, indeed, in its rusticity and coarseness, but always in its pluminess and its strength.

COLEMING the Poet:—

'The "Pilgrim's Progress" is composed in the lowest style of English, without slang or false grammar. If you were to polish it, you would at once destroy the reality of the vision.

'This wonderful work is one of the very few books which may be read over repeatedly at different times, and each time with a new and different pleasure. I read it once as a theologian, and let me assure you, that there is great theological acumen in the work, once with devotional feelings, and once as a poet; I could not have believed before, but that Calvinism could be painted in such exquisitely delightful colours.

'I know of no book, the Bible excepted, as above all comparison, which I, according to my judgment and experience, could so safely recommend, as teaching and enforcing the whole saving truth according to the mind that was in Christ Jesus, as the "Pilgrim's Progress." It is, in my conviction, incomparably the best *gamma theologia evangelicae* ever produced by a writer not miraculously inspired.'—(May and June, 1830. *Table Turk*, vol. i. pp. 160, 161.)

DR. ARVOLD of Rugby:—

'I have left off reading our divines, because, as Pascal said of the Jesuits, if I had spent my time in reading them fully, I should have read a great many indifferent books. But if I could find a great man among them, I would read him thankfully and earnestly. As it is, I hold John Bunyan to have been a man of incomparably greater genius than any of them, and to have given a far truer and more edifying picture of Christianity. His "Pilgrim's Progress" seems to be a complete reflection of Scripture, with none of the rubbish of the theologians mixed up with it.'—(*Dr. Arnold to Justice Coleridge*, Nov. 30, 1836. *Life*, vol. ii. p. 65.) And, 'I have always been struck by its piety; I am now flowing read it through again, after a long intervals struck equally, or even more, by its profound wisdom.'—Ibid. vol. ii. p. 65.