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| WHEN at the first I took my Pen in hand | |
| Thus for to write; I did not understand | |
| That I at all should make a little Book | |
| In such a mode; Nay, I had undertook | |
| To make another, which when almost done, | 5 |
| Before I was aware I this begun. | |
| And thus it was: I was writing of the Way | |
| And Race of Saints, in this our Gospel-day, | |
| Fell suddenly into an Allegory | |
| About their Journey, and the way to Glory, | 10 |
| In more than twenty things which I set down: | |
| This done, I twenty more had in my Crown, | |
| And they again began to multiply, | |
| Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly. | |
| Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast, | 15 |
| I’ll put you by yourselves, lest you at last | |
| Should prove an infinitum, and eat out | |
| The Book that I already am about. | |
| Well, so I did; but yet I did not think | |
| To shew to all this World my Pen and Ink | 20 |
| In such a mode; I only thought to make | |
| I knew not what: nor did I undertake | |
| Thereby to please my Neighbor; no not I; | |
| I did it mine own self to gratifie. | |
| Neither did I but vacant seasons spend | 25 |
| In this my Scribble; nor did I intend | |
| But to divert myself in doing this | |
| From worser thoughts which make me do amiss. | |
| Thus I set Pen to Paper with delight, | |
| And quickly had my thoughts in black and white. | 30 |
| For having now my Method by the end, | |
| Still as I pull’d, it came; and so I penn’d | |
| It down, until it came at last to be | |
| For length and breadth the bigness which you see. | |
| Well, when I had thus put mine ends together, | 35 |
| I shew’d them others, that I might see whether | |
| They would condemn them, or them justifie; | |
| And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die; | |
| Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so: | |
| Some said, It might do good; others said, No. | 40 |
| Now was I in a straight, and did not see | |
| Which was the best thing to be done by me: | |
| At last I thought, Since you are thus divided, | |
| I print it will, and so the case decided. | |
| For, thought I, some I see would have it done, | 45 |
| Though others in that Channel do not run. | |
| To prove then who advised for the best, | |
| Thus I thought fit to put it to the test. | |
| I further thought, if now I did deny | |
| Those that would have it thus, to gratifie, | 50 |
| I did not know but hinder them I might | |
| Of that which would to them be great delight. | |
| For those which were not for its coming forth | |
| I said to them, Offend you I am loth, | |
| Yet since your Brethren pleased with it be, | 55 |
| Forbear to judge till you do further see. | |
| If that thou wilt not read, let it alone; | |
| Some love the meat, some love to pick the bone: | |
| Yea, that I might them better palliate, | |
| I did too with them thus Expostulate: | 60 |
| May I not write in such a stile as this? | |
| In such a method too, and yet not miss | |
| Mine end, thy good? why may it not be done? | |
| Dark Clouds bring Waters, when the bright bring none. | |
| Yea, dark or bright, if they their Silver drops | 65 |
| Cause to descend, the Earth, by yielding Crops, | |
| Gives praise to both, and carpeth not at either, | |
| But treasures up the Fruit they yield together; | |
| Yea, so commixes both, that in her Fruit | |
| None can distinguish this from that: they suit | 70 |
| Her well, when hungry; but, if she be full, | |
| She spues out both, and makes their blessings null. | |
| You see the ways the Fisher-man doth take | |
| To catch the Fish; what Engines doth he make? | |
| Behold how he engageth all his Wits, | 75 |
| Also his Snares, Lines, Angles, Hooks, and Nets. | |
| Yet Fish there be, that neither Hook, nor Line, | |
| Nor Snare, nor Net, nor Engine can make thine; | |
| They must be grop’d for, and be tickled too, | |
| Or they will not be catch’d, whate’er you do. | 80 |
| How doth the Fowler seek to catch his Game | |
| By divers means, all which one cannot name? | |
| His Gun, his Nets, his Lime-twigs, Light, and Bell; | |
| He creeps, he goes, he stands; yea who can tell | |
| Of all his postures? Yet there’s none of these | 85 |
| Will make him master of what Fowls he please. | |
| Yea, he must Pipe and Whistle to catch this; | |
| Yet if he does so, that Bird he will miss. | |
| If that a Pearl may in a Toad’s head dwell, | |
| And may be found too in an Oyster-shell; | 90 |
| If things that promise nothing do contain | |
| What better is than Gold; who will disdain, | |
| That have an inkling of it, there to look, | |
| That they may find it? Now my little Book | |
| (Though void of all those Paintings that may make | 95 |
| It with this or the other man to take) | |
| Is not without those things that do excel | |
| What do in brave, but empty notions dwell. | |
| Well, yet I am not fully satisfied, | |
| That this your Book will stand, when soundly try’d. | 100 |
| Why, what’s the matter? It is dark. What tho? | |
| But it is feigned: What of that I tro? | |
| Some men, by feigning words as dark as mine, | |
| Make truth to spangle, and its rays to shine. | |
| But they want solidness. Speak man thy mind. | 105 |
| They drowned the weak; Metaphors make us blind. | |
| Solidity indeed becomes the Pen | |
| Of him that writeth things Divine to men; | |
| But must I needs want solidness, because | |
| By Metaphors I speak? Were not God’s Laws, | 110 |
| His Gospel-Laws, in olden time held forth | |
| By Types, Shadows, and Metaphors? Yet loth | |
| Will any sober man be to find fault | |
| With them, lest he be found for to assault | |
| The highest Wisdom. No, he rather stoops, | 115 |
| And seeks to find out what by Pins and Loops, | |
| By Calves, and Sheep, by Heifers, and by Rams, | |
| By Birds, and Herbs, and by the blood of Lambs, | |
| God speaketh to him. And happy is he | |
| That finds the light and grace that in them be. | 120 |
| Be not too forward therefore to conclude | |
| That I want solidness, that I am rude: | |
| All things solid in shew not solid be; | |
| All things in parables despise not we; | |
| Lest things most hurtful lightly we receive, | 125 |
| And things that good are, of our souls bereave. | |
| My dark and cloudy words they do but hold | |
| The Truth, as Cabinets inclose the Gold. | |
| The Prophets used much by Metaphors | |
| To set forth Truth; yea, whoso considers | 130 |
| Christ, his Apostles too, shall plainly see, | |
| That Truths to this day in such Mantles be. | |
| Am I afraid to say that Holy Writ, | |
| Which for its Stile and Phrase puts down all Wit, | |
| Is everywhere so full of all these things, | 135 |
| Dark Figures, Allegories? Yet there springs | |
| From that same Book that lustre, and those rays | |
| Of light, that turns our darkest nights to days. | |
| Come, let my Carper to his Life now look, | |
| And find there darker lines than in my Book | 140 |
| He findeth any; Yea, and let him know, | |
| That in his best things there are worse lines too. | |
| May we but stand before impartial men, | |
| To his poor One I dare adventure Ten, | |
| That they will take my meaning in these lines | 145 |
| Far better than his lies in Silver Shrines. | |
| Come, Truth, although in Swaddling-clouts, I find, | |
| Informs the Judgment, rectifies the Mind, | |
| Pleases the Understanding, makes the Will | |
| Submit; the Memory too it doth fill | 150 |
| With what doth our Imagination please; | |
| Likewise it tends our troubles to appease. | |
| Sound words I know Timothy is to use, | |
| And old Wive’s Fables he is to refuse; | |
| But yet grave Paul him nowhere doth forbid | 155 |
| The use of Parables; in which lay hid | |
| That Gold, those Pearls, and precious stones that were | |
| Worth digging for, and that with greatest care. | |
| Let me add one word more. O man of God, | |
| Art thou offended? Dost thou wish I had | 160 |
| Put forth my matter in another dress, | |
| Or that I had in things been more express? | |
| Three things let me propound, then I submit | |
| To those that are my betters, as is fit. | |
| 1. I find not that I am denied the use | 165 |
| Of this my method, so I no abuse | |
| Put on the Words, Things, Readers; or be rude | |
| In handling Figure or Similitude, | |
| In application; but, all that I may, | |
| Seek the advance of Truth this or that way. | 170 |
| Denied, did I say? Nay, I have leave, | |
| (Example too, and that from them that have | |
| God better pleased, by their words or ways, | |
| Than any man that breatheth now a-days) | |
| Thus to express my mind, thus to declare | 175 |
| Things unto thee, that excellentest are. | |
| 2. I find that men (as high as Trees) will write | |
| Dialogue-wise; yet no man doth them slight | |
| For writing so; Indeed if they abuse | |
| Truth, cursed be they, and the craft they use | 180 |
| To that intent; but yet let Truth be free | |
| To make her sallies upon thee and me, | |
| Which way it pleases God. For who knows how, | |
| Better than he that taught us first to Plow, | |
| To guide our Mind and Pens for his Design? | 185 |
| And he makes base things usher in Divine. | |
| 3. I find that Holy Writ in many places | |
| Hath semblance with this method, where the cases | |
| Do call for one thing, to set forth another; | |
| Use it I may then, and yet nothing smother | 190 |
| Truth’s golden Beams: nay, by this method may | |
| Make it cast forth its rays as light as day. | |
| And now, before I do put up my Pen, | |
| I’ll shew the profit of my Book, and then | |
| Commit both thee and it unto that hand | 195 |
| That pulls the strong down, and makes weak ones stand. | |
| This Book it chalketh out before thine eyes | |
| The man that seeks the everlasting Prize; | |
| It shews you whence he comes, whither he goes, | |
| What he leaves undone, also what he does; | 200 |
| It also shews you how he runs and runs, | |
| Till he unto the Gate of Glory comes. | |
| It shews too, who set out for life amain, | |
| As if the lasting Crown they would obtain; | |
| Here also you may see the reason why | 205 |
| They lose their labour, and like Fools do die. | |
| This Book will make a Traveller of thee, | |
| If by its Counsel thou wilt ruled be; | |
| It will direct thee to the Holy Land, | |
| If thou wilt its directions understand: | 210 |
| Yea, it will make the slothful active be; | |
| The blind also delightful things to see. | |
| Art thou for something rare and profitable? | |
| Wouldest thou see a Truth within a Fable? | |
| Art thou forgetful? Wouldest thou remember | 215 |
| From New-year’s-day to the last of December? | |
| Then read my Fancies, they will stick like Burrs, | |
| And may be to the Helpless, Comforters. | |
| This Book is writ in such a Dialect | |
| As may the minds of listless men affect: | 220 |
| It seems a novelty, and yet contains | |
| Nothing but sound and honest Gospel strains. | |
| Would’st thou divert thyself from Melancholy? | |
| Would’st thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly? | |
| Would’st thou read Riddles, and their Explanation? | 225 |
| Or else be drowned in thy Contemplation? | |
| Dost thou love picking meat? Or would’st thou see | |
| A man i’ th’ Clouds, and hear him speak to thee? | |
| Would’st thou be in a Dream, and yet not sleep? | |
| Or would’st thou in a moment laugh and weep? | 230 |
| Wouldest thou lose thyself, and catch no harm, | |
| And find thyself again without a charm? | |
| Would’st read thyself, and read thou know’st not what, | |
| And yet know whether thou art blest or not, | |
| By reading the same lines? O then come hither, | 235 |
And lay my Book, thy Head, and Heart together.
JOHN BUNYAN. | |
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