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pate the harvestman, and call upon him to put in the sickle. Not unlike to which are the lookings and longings, the groanings and hastenings of ready Christians to their expected glory; they hasten to the coming of the Lord; or as Montanus more fitly renders it, they hasten the coming of the Lord; i. e. they are urgent and instant in their desires and cries, to hasten his coming; their desires sally forth to meet the Lord, they willingly take death by the hand; as the corn bends to the earth, so do these souls to heaven. This shews harvest to be near.

123. John Bunyan, 1628-1688. (Handbook, pars. 399, 514.) Author of the finest allegory in any language—The Pilgrim's Progress, of the Holy War, and of Grace Abounding, an autobiography.

Christian at the Cross.

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble; and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, 'He hath given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His death.' Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came to him, and saluted him with Peace be to thee;' so the first said to him, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee;' the second stripped him of his rags and clothed him with change of raiment; the third also set a mark on his forehead,' and gave him a roll, with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate; so

they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing,

Thus far did I come laden with my sin;

Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither: what a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss ?

Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Bless'd Cross! bless'd Sepulchre! bless'd rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!

I saw then, in my dream, that he went on thus, even until he came at a bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep with fetters upon their heels. The name of the one was Simple, another Sloth, the third Presumption. Christian then seeing them lie in this case went to them, if peradventure he might awake them; and cried, 'You are like them that sleep on the top of the mast; for the Dead Sea is under you, a gulph that hath no bottom; awake, therefore, and come away; be willing, also, and I will help you off with your irons.' He also told them, if he that goeth about like a roaring lion comes by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth.' With that they looked upon him, and began to answer him in this sort: Simple said, 'I see no danger;' Sloth said, 'Yet a little more sleep;' and Presumption said, 'Every vat must stand upon its own bottom.' And so they laid down to sleep again, and Christian went on his way.

Pilgrim's Progress.

Several books of the seventeenth century imply great familiarity on the part of the writer and the readers with military life. The most remarkable is the Holy War of Bunyan. It is as an allegory more elaborate than the Pilgrim, though it has never been so popular.

The Town of Mansoul.

Now there is in this gallant country of Universe a fair and delicate town, a corporation called Mansoul; a town for its building so curious, for its situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous-I mean with reference to its originalthat I may say of it, as was said before of the continent in which it is placed, there is not its equal under the whole heaven.

The situation of this town is just between the two worlds, and

the first founder and builder of it, so far as by the best and most authentic records I can gather, was one Shaddai; and he built it for his own delight. He made it mirror and glory of all he had made, even the top-piece above anything else that he did in that country; yea, so goodly a town was Mansoul, when first built, that it is said by some, the gods at the setting up thereof came down to see it, and sang for jóy. And as he made it goodly to behold, so also mighty, to have dominion over all the country round about; yea, all was commanded to acknowledge Mansoul for their metropolitan, all was enjoined to do homage to it; ay, the town itself had positive commission and power from her king to demand service of all, and also to subdue any that anywise denied to do it.

There was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and stately palace for strength it might be called a castle; for pleasantness, a paradise; for largeness, a place so copious as to contain all the world. This place the king, Shaddai, intended but for himself alone, and not another with him; partly because of his own delights, and partly because he would not that the terror of strangers should be upon the town. This place Shaddai made also a garrison of, but committed the keeping of it only to the men of the town.

The wall of the town was well built; yea, so fast and firm was it knit and compact together, that had it not been for the townsmen themselves they could not have been shaken or broken for

ever.

For here lay the excellent wisdom of him that built Mansoul, that the walls could never be broken down nor hurt by the most mighty adverse (potentates, unless the townsmen gave consent thereto.

This famous town of Mansoul had five gates in at which to come, out at which to go; and these were made likewise answerable to the walls, to wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor forced but by the will and leave of those within. The names of the gates were these-Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouthgate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate.

Other things there were that belonged to the town of Mansoul, which, if you adjoin to these, will yet give further demonstration of all the glory and strength of the place. It had always a sufficiency of provision within its walls: it had the best. most

wholesome, and excellent law that then was extant in the world. There was not a rascal, rogue, or traitorous person then within its walls; they were all true men. And to all these it had always (so long as it had the goodness to keep true to Shaddai the king) his countenance, his protection, and it was his delight.

124. Sir William Temple, 1628-1698. (Handbook, par. 373.)

The author of several brief essays, all of which display shrewdness, and have been commended for the elegance and musicalness of their style. His Essay on Learning gave rise to a famous controversy. He was defended by Swift and answered by Bentley and Cotton.

Character of the English.

There is a sort of variety amongst us which arises from our climate, and the dispositions it naturally produces. We are not only more unlike one another than any nation I know, but we are more unlike ourselves too at several times, and owe to our very air some ill qualities as well as good. We may allow some distempers incident to our climate, since so much health, vigour, and length of life have been generally ascribed to it; for, among the Greek and Roman authors themselves, we shall find the Britons observed to live the longest, and the Egyptians the shortest of any nations that were known in those ages. Besides, I think none will dispute the native courage of our men and beauty of our women, which may be elsewhere as great in particulars, but nowhere so in general; they may be (what is said of diseases) as acute in other places, but with us they are epidemical. For my own part, who have conversed much with men of other nations, and such as have been both in great employments and esteem, I can say very impartially, that I have not observed among any so much true genius as among the English; nowhere more sharpness of wit, more pleasantness of humour, more range of fancy, more penetration of thought, or depth of reflection, among the better sort; nowhere more goodness of nature and of meaning, nor more plainness of sense and of life, than among the common sort of country people; nor more blunt courage and honesty than among our seamen.

But with all this, our country must be confessed to be, what a great foreign physician called it, the region of spleen; which may arise a good deal from the great uncertainty and many

sudden changes of our weather in all seasons of the year. And how much these affect the heads and hearts, especially of the finest tempers, is hard to be believed by men whose thoughts are not turned to such speculations. This makes us unequal in our humours, inconstant in our passions, uncertain in our ends, and even in our desires. Besides, our different opinions in religion, and the factions they have raised or animated for fifty years past, have had an ill effect upon our manners and customs, inducing more avarice, ambition, disguise, with the usual consequences of them, than were before in our constitution. From all this it may happen, that there is nowhere more true zeal in the many different forms of devotion, and yet nowhere more knavery under the shows and pretences. There are nowhere so many disputes upon religion, so many reasoners upon government, so many refiners in politics, so many curious inquisitives, so many pretenders to business and state employments, greater porers upon books, nor plodders 'after wealth; and yet nowhere more abandoned libertines, more refined luxurists, extravagant debauchees, conceited gallants, more dabblers in poetry, as well as politics, in philosophy, and in chemistry. I have had several servants far gone in divinity, others in poetry; and have known in the families of some friends a keeper deep in the Rosicrucian" principles, and a laundress firm in those of Epicurus. Essay on Poetry.

Comparison of Ancient and Modern Learning.

Whoever converses much among the old books will be something hard to please among the new; yet these must have their part too in the leisure of an idle man, and have many of them their beauties as well as their defaults. . . . Two pieces that have lately pleased me are, one in English upon the Antediluvian World; and another, in French, upon the Plurality of Worlds; one writ by a divine, and the other by a gentleman, but both very finely in their several kinds, and upon their several subjects, which would have made very poor work in common hands. I was so pleased with the last (I mean the fashion of it rather than the matter, which is old and beaten) that I enquired for what else I could of the same hand, till I met with a small piece concerning poesy, which gave me the same exception to both

• A secret society, supposed to be so called from Rosencreutz, the founder of the

sect.

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