The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
out of the way of knowledge, shall remain in the congregation of the
dead.'" Then Christian and Hopeful looked upon one another with tears
gushing out, but yet said nothing to the shepherds.
Then I saw in my dream, that the shepherds had them to another place in
a bottom, where was a door on the side of a hill; and they opened the
door, and bid them look in. They looked in, therefore, and saw that
within it was very dark and smoky; they also thought that they heard
there a rumbling noise, as of fire, and a cry of some tormented, and
that they smelt the scent of brimstone. Then said Christian, "What means
this?" The shepherds told them, "This is a by-way to hell, a way that
hypocrites go in at: namely, such as sell their birthright, with Esau;
such as sell their master, with Judas; such as blaspheme the Gospel,
with Alexander; and that lie and deceive with Ananias and Sapphira his
wife."
HOPE. Then said Hopeful to the shepherds, "I perceive that these had on
them, even every one, a show of pilgrimage, as we have now; had they
not?"
SHEP. Yes, and held it a long time too.
HOPE. How far might they go on in pilgrimage in their day, since they
notwithstanding were thus miserably cast away?
SHEP. Some farther, and some not so far as these mountains.
Then said the pilgrims one to another, "We have need to cry to the
Strong for strength."
SHEP. Ay, and you will have need to use it when you have it, too.
[Sidenote: GATE OF THE CELESTIAL CITY]
By this time the pilgrims had a desire to go forward, and the shepherds
a desire they should; so they walked together towards the end of the
mountains. Then said the shepherds one to another, "Let us here show to
the pilgrims the gate of the Celestial City, if they have skill to look
through our perspective glass."[6] The pilgrims then lovingly accepted
the motion; so they had them to the top of a high hill called Clear, and
gave them their glass to look.
[6] "Perspective glass" is an old name for a telescope or spy-glass.
Then they tried to look; but the remembrance of that last thing, that
the shepherds had showed them, made their hands shake, by means of which
hindrance they could not look steadily through the glass; yet they
thought they saw something like the gate, and also some of the glory of
the place. Thus they went away, and sang this song:
"Thus by the shepherds secrets are revealed,
Which from all other men are kept concealed.
Come to the shepherds, then, if you would see
Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be."
When they were about to depart, one of the shepherds gave them a note of
the way. Another of them bid them beware of the Flatterer. The third bid
them take heed that they slept not upon the Enchanted Ground. And the
fourth bid them God speed.
So I awoke from my dream.
CHAPTER IX.
[Sidenote: THEY OVERTAKE IGNORANCE]
And I slept, and dreamed again, and saw the same two pilgrims going down
the mountains along the highway towards the city. Now, a little below
these mountains, on the left hand, lieth the country of Conceit; from
which country there comes into the way in which the pilgrims walked a
little crooked lane. Here, therefore, they met with a very brisk lad,
that came out of that country, and his name was Ignorance. So Christian
asked him from what parts he came, and whither he was going.
IGNOR. Sir, I was born in the country that lieth off there a little on
the left hand, and I am going to the Celestial City.
CHRIS. But how do you think to get in at the gate? for you may find some
difficulty there.
IGNOR. As other people do.
CHRIS. But what have you to show at the gate, that may cause that the
gate should be opened to you?
IGNOR. I know my Lord's will, and have been a good liver; I pay every
man his own; I pray, fast, pay money to the church and give to the poor,
and have left my country for whither I am going.
CHRIS. But thou camest not in at the wicket-gate that is at the head of
this way: thou camest in hither through that same crooked lane; and
therefore I fear, however thou mayest think of thyself, when the
reckoning day shall come, thou wilt have laid to thy charge that thou
art a thief and a robber, instead of getting admittance into the city.
IGNOR. Gentlemen, ye be utter strangers to me: I know you not: be
content to follow the custom of your country, and I will follow the
custom of mine. I hope all will be well. And, as for the gate that you
talk of, all the world knows that that is a great way off of our
country. I cannot think that any man in all our parts doth so much as
know the way to it; nor need they matter whether they do or no, since we
have, as you see, a fine, pleasant green lane, that comes down from our
country, the next way into the way.
When Christian saw that the man was wise in his own opinion, he said to
Hopeful, whisperingly, "There is more hope of a fool than of him." And
said, moreover "When he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom
faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool. What! shall we
talk further with him, or outgo him at present, and so leave him to
think of what he hath heard already, and then stop again for him
afterwards, and see if by degrees we can do any good to him?"
Then said Hopeful:
"Let Ignorance a little while now muse
On what is said, and let him not refuse
Good counsel to embrace, lest he remain
Still ignorant of what's the chiefest gain.
God saith, those that no understanding have
(Although He made them), them He will not save."
HOPE. He further added, "It is not good, I think, to say all to him at
once: let us pass him by, if you will, and talk to him by and by, even
as he is able to bear it."
So they both went on, and Ignorance he came after. Now, when they had
passed him a little way, they entered into a very dark lane, where they
met a man whom seven devils had bound with seven strong cords, and were
carrying of him back to the door that they saw on the side of the hill.
Now good Christian began to tremble, and so did Hopeful his companion;
yet, as the devils led away the man, Christian looked to see if he knew
him; and he thought it might be one Turn-away, that dwelt in the town of
Apostasy. But he did not perfectly see his face, for he did hang his
head like a thief that is found; but being gone past, Hopeful looked
after him, and espied on his back a paper with this inscription, "One
who was wicked while claiming to be good, and turned away from God."
[Sidenote: THREE STURDY ROGUES]
Then said Christian to his fellow, "Now I call to remembrance that which
was told of a thing that happened to a good man hereabout. The name of
that man was Little-Faith, but a good man, and dwelt in the town of
Sincere. The thing was this: At the entering in at this passage, there
comes down from Broad-way Gate a lane called Dead Man's Lane; so-called
because of the murders that are commonly done there; and this
Little-Faith, going on pilgrimage as we do now, chanced to sit down
there, and slept. Now, there happened at that time to come down that
lane, from Broad-way Gate, three sturdy rogues, and their names were
Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, three brothers; and they espying
Little-Faith, where he was, came galloping up with speed. Now, the good
man was just awaked from his sleep, and was getting up to go on his
journey. So they came up all to him, and with threatening language bid
him stand. At this, Little-Faith looked as white as a sheet and had
neither power to fight nor fly. Then said Faint-heart, 'Deliver thy
purse;' but, he making no haste to do it (for he was loth to lose his
money) Mistrust ran up to him, and, thrusting his hand into his pocket,
pulled out thence a bag of silver. Then he cried out, 'Thieves!
thieves!' With that, Guilt, with a great club that was in his hand,
struck Little-Faith on the head, and with that blow felled him flat to
the ground, where he lay bleeding as one that would bleed to death. All
this while the thieves stood by. But, at last, they hearing that some
were upon the road, and fearing lest it should be one Great-Grace, that
dwells in the city of Good-Confidence, they betook themselves to their
heels, and left this good man to shift for himself. Now, after a while,
Little-Faith came to himself, and, getting up, made shift to scramble on
his way. This was the story."
HOPE. But did they take from him all that ever he had?
CHRIS. No; the place where his jewels were they never ransacked; so
those he kept still. But as I was told, the good man was much afflicted
for his loss, for the thieves got most of his spending money. That which
they got not, as I said, were jewels; also he had a little odd money
left, but scarce enough to bring him to his journey's end. Nay, if I was
not misinformed, he was forced to beg as he went, to keep himself alive,
for his jewels he might not sell; but, beg and do what he could, he
went, as we say, often with a hungry stomach the most part of the rest
of the way.
HOPE. But is it not a wonder they got not from him his certificate, by
which he was to receive admission at the Celestial Gate?
CHRIS. It is a wonder; but they got not that, though they missed it not
through any cunning of his; for he, being dismayed by their coming upon
him, had neither power nor skill to hide anything; so it was more by
good providence than by his endeavor, that they missed of that good
thing.
HOPE. But it must needs be a comfort to him that they got not his jewels
from him.
CHRIS. It might have been great comfort to him, had he used it as he
should; but they that told me the story said, that he made but little
use of it all the rest of the way, and that because of the alarm that he
had in their taking away his money. Indeed, he forgot it a great part of
the rest of his journey; and besides, when at any time it came into his
mind, and he began to be comforted therewith, then would fresh thoughts
of his loss come again upon him, and those thoughts would swallow up
all.
[Sidenote: HOPEFUL REBUKED]
HOPE. Alas, poor man! this could not but be a great grief unto him.
CHRIS. Grief! ay, a grief indeed. Would it not have been so to any of
us, had we been used as he, to be robbed and wounded too, and that in a
strange place, as he was? It is a wonder he did not die with grief, poor
heart! I was told that he scattered almost all the rest of the way with
nothing but doleful and bitter complaints; telling also to all that
overtook him, or that he overtook in the way as he went, where he was
robbed, and how; who they were that did it, and what he had lost; how he
was wounded, and that he hardly escaped with life.
HOPE. But it is a wonder that his necessities did not put him upon
selling or pawning some of his jewels, that he might have wherewith to
relieve himself in his journey.
CHRIS. Thou talkest like one whose head is thick to this very day. For
what should he pawn them, or to whom should he sell them? In all that
country where he was robbed, his jewels were not accounted of; nor did
he want that relief which could from thence be administered to him.
Besides, had his jewels been missing at the gate of the Celestial City,
he had (and that he knew well enough) been shut out from an inheritance
there; and that would have been worse to him than the coming and villany
of ten thousand thieves.
HOPE. But, Christian, these three fellows, I am persuaded in my heart,
are but a company of cowards: would they have run else, think you, as
they did at the noise of one that was coming on the road? Why did not
Little-Faith pluck up a greater heart? He might, methinks, have stood
one brush with them, and have yielded when there had been no remedy.
CHRIS. That they are cowards many have said, but few have found it so in