conversion, his pilgrimage, and his apostasy in full.

At the same time, though it cannot be denied that Bunyan has lost at this
point a great opportunity for his genius and for our advantage,--at the
same time, he undoubtedly did a very courageous thing in introducing
Atheist at all; and, especially, in introducing him to us and making him
laugh so loudly at us when we are on the very borders of the land of
Beulah. A less courageous writer, and a writer less sure of his ground,
would have left out Atheist altogether; or, if he had felt constrained to
introduce him, would have introduced him at any other period of our
history rather than at this period. Under other hands than Bunyan's we
would have met with this mocking reprobate just outside the City of
Destruction; or, perhaps, among the booths of Vanity Fair; or, indeed,
anywhere but where we now meet him. And, that our greater-minded author
does not let loose the laughter of Atheist upon us till we are almost out
of the body is a stroke of skill and truth and boldness that makes us
glad indeed that we possess such a sketch at Bunyan's hand at all, all
too abrupt and all too short as that sketch is. In the absence, then, of
a full-length and finished portrait of Atheist, we must be content to
fall back on some of the reflections and lessons that the mere mention of
his name, the spot he passes us on, and the ridicule of his laughter, all
taken together, awaken in our minds. One rapid stroke of such a brush as
that of John Bunyan conveys more to us than a full-length likeness, with
all the strongest colours, of any other artist would be able to do.

1. One thing the life-long admiration of John Bunyan's books has helped
to kindle and burn into my mind and my imagination is this: What a
universe of things is the heart of man! Were there nothing else in the
heart of man but all the places and all the persons and all the
adventures that John Bunyan saw in his sleep, what a world that would