such fools would have made Bunyan miserable. But that time was
passed; and his mind was now in a firm and healthy state. He saw
that, in employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness
attractive, he was only following the example which every
Christian ought to propose to himself; and he determined to
print.

The "Pilgrim's Progress" stole silently into the world. Not a
single copy of the first edition is known to be in existence.
The year of publication has not been ascertained. It is probable
that, during some months, the little volume circulated only among
poor and obscure sectaries. But soon the irresistible charm of a
book which gratified the imagination of the reader with all the
action and scenery of a fairy tale, which exercised his ingenuity
by setting him to discover a multitude of curious analogies,
which interested his feelings for human beings, frail like
himself, and struggling with temptations from within and from
without, which every moment drew a smile from him by some stroke
of quaint yet simple pleasantry, and nevertheless left on his
mind a sentiment of reverence for God and of sympathy for man,
began to produce its effect. In puritanical circles, from which
plays and novels were strictly excluded, that effect was such as
no work of genius, though it were superior to the Iliad, to Don
Quixote, or to Othello, can ever produce on a mind accustomed to
indulge in literary luxury. In 1678 came forth a second edition
with additions; and then the demand became immense. In the four
following years the book was reprinted six times. The eighth
edition, which contains the last improvements made by the author,
was published in 1682, the ninth in 1684, the tenth in 1685. The
help of the engraver had early been called in; and tens of