The Life of John Bunyan by Edmund Venables
page 139 of 149 (93%)
page 139 of 149 (93%)
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to us from so faithful an itinerary, as we encounter similar trials, and
learn for ourselves the accuracy with which Bunyan has described them. Time cannot impair its interest, or intellectual progress make it cease to be true to experience." Dr. Brown's appreciative words may be added: "With deepest pathos it enters into the stern battle so real to all of us, into those heart-experiences which make up, for all, the discipline of life. It is this especially which has given to it the mighty hold which it has always had upon the toiling poor, and made it the one book above all books well-thumbed and torn to tatters among them. And it is this which makes it one of the first books translated by the missionary who seeks to give true thoughts of God and life to heathen men." The Second Part of "The Pilgrim's Progress" partakes of the character of almost all continuations. It is, in Mr. Froude's words, "only a feeble reverberation of the first part, which has given it a popularity it would have hardly attained by its own merits. Christiana and her children are tolerated for the pilgrim's sake to whom they belong." Bunyan seems not to have been insensible of this himself, when in his metrical preface he thus introduces his new work: "Go now my little book to every place Where my first Pilgrim has but shown his face. Call at their door; if any say 'Who's there?' Then answer thus, 'Christiana is here.' If they bid thee come in, then enter thou With all thy boys. And then, as thou know'st how, Tell who they are, also from whence they came; Perhaps they'll know them by their looks or name." But although the Second Part must be pronounced inferior, on the whole, |
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