to. Released from prison in 1672, Bunyan became pastor of the Bedford church; but after a service of only three years he was again arrested and imprisoned. This second imprisonment of six months is for the world the most important episode in Bunyan's life; for it was then that he wrote the first part of The Pilgrim's Progress.

"The Pilgrim's Progress." The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to that which is to Come is "delivered under the

JAIL ON BEDFORD BRIDGE.
Here Bunyan was imprisoned for years.

similitude of a dream." The author of Piers Plowman, it will be recalled (see page 22), lay down on Malvern Hills one morning, and had a dream in which appeared a "field full of folk." So Bunyan says he lay down in a " den " (i.e., Bedford Jail), and dreamed. At the end of the story, he "awoke, and behold it was a dream."

The story is of Christian, who, reading in a Book (the Bible) that his city was to be destroyed by fire, set out for a place of safety. Evangelist gives him directions; his

neighbors, Obstinate and Pliable, follow him and try to turn him back. Christian, however, refuses to return, and after a long and toilsome journey is conducted by two Shining Ones into the Celestial City.

In striving to reach his goal he has experienced many and distressing hindrances. Among them are the Slough of Despond, into which he falls; the Hill of Difficulty; Doubting Castle, the home of Giant Despair; the Valley of Humiliation, where he has to fight the fiend Apollyon; the town of Vanity, where he and a companion named Faithful are tried for disturbing the peace by talking against a fair to be held. in the town. He is enabled to overcome these hindrances by the aid of the shepherds Knowledge, Experience, and Sincere, dwellers in the Delectable Mountains; an Interpreter, who has a house on the road; the porter Watchful, and the damsels Prudence, Piety, and Charity, who occupy the Palace Beautiful; and Hopeful, who joins Christian after the execution of Faithful at Vanity Fair, and accompanies him to the end of the journey.

The reception accorded The Pilgrim's Progress is shown by the appearance of fifty-nine editions in the hundred years following its publication. Before 1700 it was translated into French, German, and Dutch; and at the present time versions exist in more than one hundred languages and dialects.

Later Works. The period between the release from his second imprisonment and his death was a happy and prosperous one for Bunyan. The second part of The Pilgrim's Progress, setting forth the journey of Christian's wife, Christiana, and their children, appeared; and though unquestionably inferior to the first part, it met with a most cordial reception. Two more of his great works were publishedThe Life and Death of Mr. Badman, a reversal of Christian's

journey and less interesting because of the simple character of the central figure; and The Holy War, an allegory the idea of which is plainly taken from Paradise Lost, and in which the banished spirits, led by Diabolus (Satan), attack the forces of Emmanuel (Christ), defending the town of Mansoul. In addition to attaining great fame as a writer, Bunyan had now come to be recognized as a great preacher. Offers of more prominent and more lucrative positions came to him, but he declined to leave Bedford permanently, though he made an annual visit to London and preached to large and enthusiastic audiences.

Death. He gave himself freely to humanity, and his death resulted

BUNYAN.

from exposure on a journey that he certainly would have called one of Christian duty. The journey was to bring about a reconciliation between a father and son, and was successful. Riding afterward to London in a heavy rain, he caught cold, which developed into fever. In about ten days he died, and was buried in London.

A Humble Man. In view of Bunyan's phenomenal success, especially with such an unpromising start in life, no

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characteristic is more noteworthy than his humility. A single incident will illustrate this. A member of his congregation once complimented him on a sermon he had preached, calling it a sweet" sermon. The great man, to whose imagination the forces of evil were very real and always present, replied: "You need not tell me that, for the devil whispered it to me before I was well out of the pulpit."

A Noteworthy Pamphlet. This chapter should not end without mention of a publication that had a great effect on the drama of this period, and incidentally upon the moral tone of the literature as a whole. This was a pamphlet entitled, Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, by Jeremy Collier, a dissenting clergyman. It appeared in 1698, two years, that is, before Dryden's death; and it was very specific as to names of both authors and plays, Dryden receiving a due share of condemnation. He differed from other offenders in admitting the justice of the charges, and making a feeble apology.

That such a spectacle as the comedy of the Restoration must have come to an end in time is doubtless true; but it is also true that the reform was hastened by the clergyman's blast. While the pamphlet is an absolutely uncritical performance, it appeared at a moment when merely a vigorous statement of the situation would contribute much toward a removal of the evil.

CHAPTER VII

FROM THE DEATH OF DRYDEN TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE "LYRICAL BALLADS" (1700-1798)

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General Character of Eighteenth-century Literature. Despite repeated assertions to the contrary, Matthew Arnold's characterization of the eighteenth century as our age of prose and reason remains the most accurate brief characterization yet offered. The objectors to the phrase apparently labor under the impression that the critic was disparaging the age, overlooking the fact that he also described it as "excellent and indispensable." After Chaucer, Shakspere, and Milton (to name only the greatest poets before 1700) English literature could well afford an entire century for perfecting its prose.

An Age of Prose. Even an age of prose may produce poets, and Arnold counts Gray a classic and Burns a poet of great power. In the opinion of most students it requires no indulgence to add the names of Thomson, Cowper, Collins, and Goldsmith to the list of real poets. When all is said, however, the fact stands out that not by reason of all six of these names does the eighteenth century hold its high place in our literary annals. That place is due to a number of prose writers of the highest merit - Defoe and Swift, Addison and Steele, Johnson and Goldsmith, Boswell and Burke; to the founders of the novel1- Richardson,

1 The novelists are separated from other prose writers because their contribution is to the establishment of a literary form rather than "a fit prose" style.