thousands of children looked with terror and delight on execrable
copper plates, which represented Christian thrusting his sword
into Apollyon, or writhing in the grasp of Giant Despair. In
Scotland, and in some of the colonies, the Pilgrim was even more
popular than in his native country. Bunyan has told us, with
very pardonable vanity, that in New England his dream was the
daily subject of the conversation of thousands, and was thought
worthy to appear in the most superb binding. He had numerous
admirers in Holland, and among the Huguenots of France. With the
pleasures, however, he experienced some of the pains of eminence.
Knavish booksellers put forth volumes of trash under his name;
and envious scribblers maintained it to be impossible that the
poor ignorant tinker should really be the author of the book
which was called his.

He took the best way to confound both those who counterfeited him
and those who slandered him. He continued to work the gold-field
which he had discovered, and to draw from it new treasures, not
indeed with quite such ease and in quite such abundance as when
the precious soil was still virgin, but yet with success which
left all competition far behind. In 1684 appeared the second
part of the "Pilgrim's Progress." It was soon followed by the
"Holy War," which, if the "Pilgrim's Progress" did not exist,
would be the best allegory that ever was written.

Bunyan's place in society was now very different from what it had
been. There had been a time when many Dissenting ministers, who
could talk Latin and read Greek, had affected to treat him with
scorn. But his fame and influence now far exceeded theirs. He
had so great an authority among the Baptists that he was