awful conclusion he resumed the game; and so persuaded was he that
heaven was for ever forfeited, that for some time after he made it
his deliberate policy to enjoy the pleasures of sin as rapidly and
intensely as possible.

To understand the foregoing incident, and some which may follow, the
reader must remember that Bunyan was made up of vivid fancy and
vehement emotion. He seldom believed; he always felt and saw. And
he could do nothing by halves. He threw a whole heart into his love
and his hatred; and when he rejoiced or trembled, the entire man and
every movement was converted into ecstasy or horror. Many have
experienced the dim counterpart of such processes as we are now
describing; but will scarcely recognise their own equivalent history
in the bright realizations and agonizing vicissitudes of a mind so
fervent and ideal.

For a month or more he went on in resolute sinning, only grudging
that he could not get such scope as the madness of despair solicited,
when one day standing at a neighbour's window, cursing and swearing,
and "playing the madman, after his wonted manner," the woman of the
house protested that he made her tremble, and that truly he was the
ungodliest fellow for swearing that she ever heard in all her life,
and quite enough to ruin the youth of the whole town. The woman was
herself a notoriously worthless character; and so severe a reproof,
from so strange a quarter, had a singular effect on Bunyan's mind.
He was in a moment silenced. He blushed before the God of heaven;
and as he there stood with hanging head, he wished with all his heart
that he were a little child again, that his father might teach him to
speak without profanity; for he thought it so inveterate now, that
reformation was out of the question. Nevertheless, so it was, from