obvious instances. His premises are not always true, nor his
inferences always legitimate; but there is such evident absence of
sophistry, and even of that refining and hair-splitting which usually
beget the suspicion of sophistry--his statements are so sincere, and
his conclusions so direct, the language is so perspicuous, and the
appeal is made so honestly to each reader's understanding, that his
popularity as a reasoner is inevitable. We need not say that the
author of the Pilgrim possessed imagination; but it is important to
note the service it rendered to his preaching, and the charm which it
still imparts to his miscellaneous works. The pictorial power he
possessed in a rare degree. His mental eye perceived the truth most
vividly. Some minds are moving in a constant mystery. They see men
like trees walking. The different doctrines of the Bible all wear
dim outlines to them, jostling and jumbling; and after a perplexing
morrice of bewildering hints and half discoveries, they vanish into
the misty back-ground of nonentity. To Bunyan's bright and broad-
waking eye all things were clear. Thee men walked and the trees
stood still. Everything was seen in sharp relief and definite
outline--a REALITY. And besides the pictorial, he possessed in
highest perfection the illustrative faculty. Not only did his own
mind perceive the truth most vividly, but he saw the very way to give
others a clear perception of it also. This is the great secret of
successful teaching. Like a man who has chambered his difficult way
to the top of a rocky eminence, but who, once he has reached the
summit, perceives an easier path, and directs his companions along
its gentler slopes, and gives them a helping-hand to lift them over
the final obstacles; it was by giant struggles over the debris of
crumbling hopes, and through jungles of despair, and up the cliffs of
apparent impossibility, that Bunyan forced his way to the pinnacle of
his eventual joy; but no sooner was he standing there, than his