"from the land of Vainglory, and were going for praise to Mount Sion";
Simple, Sloth, and Presumption, "fast asleep by the roadside with fetters
on their heels," and their companions, Shortwind, Noheart,
Lingerafterlust, and Sleepyhead, we know them all. "The young woman
whose name was Dull" taxes our patience every day. Where is the town
which does not contain Mrs. Timorous and her coterie of gossips, Mrs.
Bats-eyes, Mrs. Inconsiderate, Mrs. Lightmind, and Mrs. Knownothing, "all
as merry as the maids," with that pretty fellow Mr. Lechery at the house
of Madam Wanton, that "admirably well-bred gentlewoman"? Where shall we
find more lifelike portraits than those of Madam Bubble, a "tall, comely
dame, somewhat of a swarthy complexion, speaking very smoothly with a
smile at the end of each sentence, wearing a great purse by her side,
with her hand often in it, fingering her money as if that was her chief
delight;" of poor Feeblemind of the town of Uncertain, with his "whitely
look, the cast in his eye, and his trembling speech;" of Littlefaith, as
"white as a clout," neither able to fight nor fly when the thieves from
Dead Man's Lane were on him; of Ready-to-halt, at first coming along on
his crutches, and then when Giant Despair had been slain and Doubting
Castle demolished, taking Despondency's daughter Much-afraid by the hand
and dancing with her in the road? "True, he could not dance without one
crutch in his hand, but I promise you he footed it well. Also the girl
was to be commanded, for she answered the musick handsomely." In
Bunyan's pictures there is never a superfluous detail. Every stroke
tells, and helps to the completeness of the portraiture.

The same reality characterizes the descriptive part of "The Pilgrim's
Progress." As his characters are such as he must meet with every day in
his native town, so also the scenery and surroundings of his allegory are
part of his own everyday life, and reproduce what he had been brought up
amidst in his native county, or had noticed in his tinker's wanderings.