The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
the world, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere. I wish that all
men would deal with such as you have done; then should they either be
made more suitable to religion, or the company of saints would be too
hot for them.
FAITH. Then did Faithful say,
"How Talkative at first lifts up his plumes!
How bravely doth he speak! How he presumes
To drive down all before him! But so soon
As Faithful talks of heart-work, like the moon
That's past the full, into the wane he goes;
And so will all but he who heart-work knows."
Thus they went on, talking of what they had seen by the way, and so made
that way easy, which would otherwise, no doubt, have been tedious to
them; for now they went through a wilderness.
CHAPTER VI.
Now, when they were got almost quite out of this wilderness, Faithful
chanced to cast his eye back, and espied one coming after him, and he
knew him. "Oh!" said Faithful to his brother, "who comes yonder?" Then
Christian looked, and said, "It is my good friend Evangelist." "Ay, and
my good friend, too," said Faithful; "for it was he that set me the way
to the gate." Now was Evangelist come up unto them, and thus saluted
them:
EVAN. Peace be with you, dearly beloved, and peace be to your helpers.
CHRIS. Welcome, welcome, my good Evangelist: the sight of thy face
brings to my thought thy former kindness and unwearied laboring for my
eternal good.
FAITH. "And a thousand times welcome," said good Faithful: "thy company,
O sweet Evangelist, how desirable is it to us poor pilgrims!"
EVAN. Then said Evangelist, "How hath it fared with you, my friends,
since the time of our last parting? What have you met with, and how have
you behaved yourselves?"
Then Christian and Faithful told him of all things that had happened to
them in the way; and how, and with what difficulty, they had arrived to
that place.
EVAN. "Right glad am I," said Evangelist, "not that you met with trials,
but that you have been victors, and for that you have, notwithstanding
many weaknesses, continued in the way to this very day. I say, right
glad am I of this thing, and that for my own sake and yours. I have
sowed, and you have reaped; and the day is coming when 'both he that
sowed and they that reaped shall rejoice together;' that is, if you
faint not. The crown is before you, and it is an uncorruptible one: so
run that you may obtain it. Some there be that set out for this crown,
and after they have gone far for it, another comes in and takes it from
them: 'Hold fast, therefore, that you have; let no man take your
crown.'"
Then Christian thanked him for his words, but told him withal that they
would have him speak further to them, for their help the rest of the
way; and the rather, for that they well knew that he was a prophet, and
could tell them of things that might happen unto them, and also how they
might resist and overcome them. To which request Faithful also
consented. So Evangelist began as followeth:
[Sidenote: EVANGELIST EXHORTS CHRISTIAN]
EVAN. My sons, you have heard, in the words of the truth of the Gospel,
that you must "through many trials enter into the kingdom of heaven;"
and again, that "in every city bonds and afflictions await you;" and
therefore you cannot expect that you should go long on your pilgrimage
without them in some sort or other. You have found something of the
truth of these words upon you already, and more will immediately follow;
for now, as you see, you are almost out of this wilderness, and
therefore you will soon come into a town that you will by-and-by see
before you; and in that town you will be hardly beset with enemies who
will strain hard but they will kill you; and be you sure that one or
both of you must seal the truth which you hold with blood: but be you
faithful unto death, and the King will give you a crown of life. He that
shall die there, although his death will be unnatural, and his pain,
perhaps, great, he will yet have the better of his fellow; not only
because he will be arrived at the Celestial City soonest, but because he
will escape many miseries that the other will meet with in the rest of
his journey. But when you are come to the town, and shall find fulfilled
what I have here related, then remember your friend, and quit yourselves
like men, and commit the keeping of your souls to God in well-doing, as
unto a faithful Creator.
[Sidenote: THE PILGRIMS AT VANITY FAIR]
Then I saw in my dream, that, when they were got out of the wilderness,
they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is
Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair. It is
kept all the year long. It beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the
town where it is kept is lighter than vanity, and also because all that
is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity; as is the saying of
the Wise, "All that cometh is vanity."
This is no newly begun business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will
show you the original of it.
Almost five thousand years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the
Celestial City, as these two honest persons are; and Beelzebub,
Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that
the pilgrims made that their way to the city lay through this town of
Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair wherein should be
sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long.
Therefore at this fair are all such things sold as houses, lands,
trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts,
pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as wives, husbands, children,
masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls,
precious stones, and what not.
And, moreover, at this fair there are at all times to be seen jugglings,
cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every
kind.
Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, false
swearers, and that of a blood-red color.
And, as in other fairs of less moment there are several rows and streets
under their proper names, where such and such wares are vended; so here
likewise you have the proper places, rows, streets (namely, countries
and kingdoms), where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found.
Here are the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian Row, the Spanish
Row, the German Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold.
But, as in other fairs some one commodity is as the chief of all the
fair, so the ware of Rome and her goods are greatly promoted in this
fair; only our English nation, with some others, have taken dislike
thereat.
Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this
town where this lusty fair is kept; and he that would go to the city,
and yet not go through this town, "must needs go out of the world." The
Prince of princes Himself, when here, went through this town to His own
country, and that upon a fair day too; yea, and as I think, it was
Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair, that invited Him to buy of his
vanities; yea, would have made Him lord of the fair, would He but have
done him reverence as He went through the town. Yea, because He was such
a person of honor, Beelzebub had Him from street to street, and showed
Him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, that he might, if
possible, allure that Blessed One to ask for and buy some of his
vanities; but He had no mind to the merchandise, and therefore left the
town without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities.
This fair, therefore, is an ancient thing of long-standing, and a very
great fair.
Now, these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well,
so they did; but, behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the
people in the fair were moved and the town itself, as it were, in a
hubbub about them, and that for several reasons; for,
First,--The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of garments as were
different from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people,
therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them: some said they
were fools; some, they were bedlams; and some, they were outlandish men.
Secondly,--And, as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise
at their speech; for few could understand what they said. They naturally
spoke the language of Canaan; but they that kept the fair were the men
of this world. So that from one end of the fair to the other, they
seemed barbarians each to the other.
Thirdly,--But that which did not a little amuse the store-keepers was,
that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares. They cared not so
much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they
would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, "Turn away mine eyes
from beholding vanity," and look upwards, signifying that their trade
and traffic were in heaven.
One chanced, mockingly, beholding the actions of the men, to say unto
them, "What will you buy?" But they, looking gravely upon him, said, "We
buy the truth." At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men
the more: some mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and
some calling on others to smite them. At last things came to a hubbub
and great stir in the fair, insomuch that all order was confounded. Now
was word presently brought to the great one of the fair, who quickly
came down, and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take these men
for trial about whom the fair was almost overturned. So the men were
brought to trial, and they that sat upon them asked them whence they
came, whither they went, and what they did there in such an unusual
garb. The men told them that they were pilgrims and strangers in the
world, and that they were going to their own country, which was the
heavenly Jerusalem, and that they had given no occasion to the men of
the town, nor yet to the merchants, thus to abuse them, and to hinder
them in their journey, except it was for that, when one asked them what
they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But they that were
appointed to examine them did not believe them to be any other than
crazy people and mad, or else such as came to put all things into a
confusion in the fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and
besmeared them with dirt, and then put them into the cage, that they
might be made a spectacle to all the men of the fair. There, therefore,
they lay for some time, and were made the objects of any man's sport, or
malice, or revenge; the great one of the fair laughing still at all that
befell them. But, the men being patient, and "not rendering railing for
railing, but contrariwise blessing," and giving good words for bad, and
kindness for injuries done, some men in the fair that were more
observing and less opposed than the rest, began to check and blame the
baser sort for their continual abuses done by them to the men. They,
therefore, in an angry manner, let fly at them again, counting them as
bad as the men in the cage, and telling them that they seemed to be in
league with them, and should be made partakers of their misfortunes. The
others replied, that, for aught they could see, the men were quiet and
sober, and intended nobody any harm; and that there were many that
traded in their fair that were more worthy to be put into the cage, yea,
and pillory too, than were the men that they had abused. Thus, after
divers words had passed on both sides (the men behaving themselves all
the while very wisely and soberly before them,) they fell to some blows,
and did harm to one another. Then were these two poor men brought before
the court again, and there charged as being guilty of the late hubbub
that had been in the fair. So they beat them pitifully, and hanged irons