And yet know whether thou art blest or not,
By reading the same lines? Oh, then come hither,
And lay my book, thy head, and heart together.
                                               JOHN BUNYAN.

                              THE PILGRIM'S
                              PROGRESS
                        IN THE SIMILITUDE OF
                              A DREAM

AS I WALKED THROUGH THE WILDERNESS OF THIS world, I lighted on
a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that
place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed,
and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain
place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and
a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the
book, and read therein; and, as he read, he wept, and trembled;
and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a
lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do?

In this plight, therefore, he went home and refrained himself as
long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive
his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his
trouble increased. Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his
wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them: O my dear
wife, said he, and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear
friend, am in myself undone by reason of a burden that lieth
hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our
city will be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful
overthrow, both myself, with thee my wife, and you my sweet
babes, shall miserably come to

ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can be
found, whereby we may be delivered. At this his relations were
sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to
them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy
distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards
night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with
all haste they got him to bed. But the night was as troublesome
to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it
in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would
know how he did. He told them, Worse and worse: he also set to
talking to them again; but they began to be hardened. They also
thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages
to him; sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide,
and sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began
to retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them, and
also to condole his own misery; he would also walk solitarily in
the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying: and thus
for some days he spent his time.

Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that
he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly
distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had
done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?

I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would
run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not
tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named
Evangelist coming to him, who asked, Wherefore dost thou cry?

He answered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand,

that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment;
and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do
the second.

      Christian no sooner leaves the World but meets
      Evangelist, who lovingly him greets
      With tidings of another: and doth shew
      Him how to mount to that from this below.

Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is
attended with so many evils? The man answered, Because I fear
that this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than
the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet. And, Sir, if I be not
fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to judgment,
and from thence to execution; and the thoughts of these things
make me cry.

Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest
thou still? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then
he gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, Flee
from the wrath to come.

The man, therefore, read it, and looking upon Evangelist very
carefully, said, Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist,
pointing with his finger over a very wide field, Do you see
yonder wicket-gate? The man said, No. Then said the other, Do
you see yonder shining light? He said, I think I do. Then said
Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly
thereto: so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou
knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do. So I saw in
my dream that the man began to run. Now, he had not run far from
his own door, but his wife and children, perceiving it, began to

cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his
ears, and ran on, crying, Life! life! eternal life! So he looked
not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.