The situation of the city of Mansoul occupies one of the most beautiful
pages of this whole book. The opening of the _Holy War_, simply as a
piece of English, is worthy to stand beside the best page of the
_Pilgrim's Progress_ itself, and what more can I say than that? Now, the
situation of a city is a matter of the very first importance. Indeed,
the insight and the foresight of the great statesmen and the great
soldiers of past ages are seen in nothing more than in the sites they
chose for their citadels and for their defenced cities. Well, then, as
to the situation of Mansoul, 'it lieth,' says our military author, 'just
between the two worlds.' That is to say: very much as Germany in our day
lies between France and Russia, and very much as Palestine in her day lay
between Egypt and Assyria, so does Mansoul lie between two immense
empires also. And, surely, I do not need to explain to any man here who
has a man's soul in his bosom that the two armed empires that besiege his
soul are Heaven above and Hell beneath, and that both Heaven and Hell
would give their best blood and their best treasure to subdue and to
possess his soul. We do not value our souls at all as Heaven and Hell
value them. There are savage tribes in Africa and in Asia who inhabit
territories that are sleeplessly envied by the expanding and extending
nations of Europe. Ancient and mighty empires in Europe raise armies,
and build navies, and levy taxes, and spill the blood of their bravest
sons like water in order to possess the harbours, and the rivers, and the
mountains, and the woods amid which their besotted owners roam in utter
ignorance of all the plots and preparations of the Western world. And
Heaven and Hell are not unlike those ancient and over-peopled nations of
Europe whose teeming millions must have an outlet to other lands. Their
life and their activity are too large and too rich for their original
territories, and thus they are compelled to seek out colonies and
dependencies, so that their surplus population may have a home. And, in
like manner, Heaven is too full of love and of blessedness to have all