Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 00 - Author’s Apology for his Book - The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan

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00 - Author’s Apology for his Book - The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Part one, the author's apology for his book. When at
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  Speaker 1: the first I took my pen in hand thus fought
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  Speaker 1: to write, I did not understand that I at all
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  Speaker 1: should make a little book in such a mode. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: I had undertook to make another, which, when almost done,
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  Speaker 1: before I was aware, I this begun. And thus it
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  Speaker 1: was I writing of the way and race of saints.
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  Speaker 1: In this our gospel day fell suddenly into an allegory
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  Speaker 1: about their journey and the way to glory. In more
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  Speaker 1: than twenty things which I set down. This done, I
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  Speaker 1: twenty more had in my crown, and they again began
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  Speaker 1: to multiply, like sparks that from the coals of fire
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  Speaker 1: do fly. Nay, then thought I, if that you breed
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  Speaker 1: so fast, I'll put you by yourselves, lest you at
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  Speaker 1: last should prove at infinitum and eat out the book
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  Speaker 1: that I already am about. Well. So I did, But
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  Speaker 1: yet I did not think to show to all the
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  Speaker 1: world my pen and ink in such a mode. I
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  Speaker 1: only thought to make. I knew not what, nor did
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  Speaker 1: I undertake thereby to please my neighbor. No, not I
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  Speaker 1: did it my own self to gratify. Neither did I.
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  Speaker 1: But vacant season spend in this my scribble. Nor did
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  Speaker 1: I intend but to divert myself in doing this from
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  Speaker 1: worser thoughts which make me do amiss. Thus I set
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  Speaker 1: pen to paper with delight, and quickly had my thoughts
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  Speaker 1: in black and white, for having now my method. By
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  Speaker 1: the end, still as I pulled it came, and so
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  Speaker 1: I penned it down, until it came at last to
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  Speaker 1: be for length and breadth, the bigness which you see. Well.
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  Speaker 1: When I had thus put mine ends together, I showed
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  Speaker 1: them others that I might see whether they would condemn
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  Speaker 1: them or them justify. And some said let them live,
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  Speaker 1: some let them die. Some said, john print it, others
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  Speaker 1: said not so, some said it might do good, others
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  Speaker 1: said no. Now was I in a strait and did
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  Speaker 1: not see which was the best thing to be done
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  Speaker 1: by me? At last, I thought, since Y are thus divided,
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  Speaker 1: I print it will, And so the case decided. For
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  Speaker 1: thought I some I see would have it done, though
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  Speaker 1: others in that channel do not run to prove then
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  Speaker 1: who advised it for the best? Thus I thought fit
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  Speaker 1: to put it to the test. I further thought, if
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  Speaker 1: now I did deny those that would have it thus
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  Speaker 1: to gratify I did not know, but hinder them I
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  Speaker 1: might of that which would to them be great delight
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  Speaker 1: for those which were not for its coming forth, I
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  Speaker 1: said to them, offend you, I am loathe. Yet since
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  Speaker 1: your brethren pleased with it, be forbear to judge till
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  Speaker 1: you do further. See if that thou wilt not read,
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  Speaker 1: let it alone. Some love the meat, some love to
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  Speaker 1: pick the bone. YEA, that I might then better palliate
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  Speaker 1: I did too with them. Thus expostulate. May I not
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  Speaker 1: write in such a style as this, in such a
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  Speaker 1: method too, and yet not miss my end? Thy good?
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  Speaker 1: Why may it not be done? Dark clouds bring waters,
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  Speaker 1: when the bright bring none? Yea, dark or right? If
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  Speaker 1: they their silver drops coursed to descend the earth by
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  Speaker 1: yielding crops, gives praise to both, and carpeth not at either,
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  Speaker 1: but treasures up the fruit they yield together. Yea, so
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  Speaker 1: comixanes both that in their fruit. None can distinguish this
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  Speaker 1: from that they suit her well when hungry. But if
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  Speaker 1: she be full, she spews out both and makes their
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  Speaker 1: blessing null. You see the ways the fisherman doth take
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  Speaker 1: to catch the fish. What engines, doth he make? Behold
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  Speaker 1: how he engageth all his wits, also his snares, lines, angles, hooks,
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  Speaker 1: and nets. Yet fish there be that neither hook nor line,
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  Speaker 1: nor snare, nor net, nor engine can make thine. They
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  Speaker 1: must be groped for and be tickled too, or they
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  Speaker 1: will not be catched. Whate'er you do? How does the
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  Speaker 1: fowler seek to catch his game? By divers means all
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  Speaker 1: which one cannot name? His guns, his nets, his lime, twigs,
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  Speaker 1: light and bell? He creeps, he goes, he stands? Yea,
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  Speaker 1: who can tell of all his postures? Yet there's none
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  Speaker 1: of these will make him master of what fowl? He please? Yea?
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  Speaker 1: He must pipe and whistle to catch this? Yet if
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  Speaker 1: he does so, that bird he will miss. If that
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  Speaker 1: a pearl man' toad's head dwell and may be found
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  Speaker 1: too in an oyster shell. If things that promise nothing
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  Speaker 1: do contain, what better is than gold? Who will disdain
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  Speaker 1: that have an inkling of it? There to look that
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  Speaker 1: they may find it? Now, my little book, they void
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  Speaker 1: of all these paintings that may make it with us
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  Speaker 1: or the other man to take is not without those
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  Speaker 1: things that do excel? What do in brave, but empty
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  Speaker 1: notions dwell well. Yet I am not fully satisfied that
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  Speaker 1: this your book will stand when soundly tried. Why what's
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  Speaker 1: the matter? It is dark? What though? But it is feigned?
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  Speaker 1: What of that I chow? Some men, by feinted words
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  Speaker 1: as dark as mine, make truth to spangle, and it's
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  Speaker 1: raised to shine. But they want solidness, Speak man, thy mind,
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  Speaker 1: they drown the weak metaphors make us blind. Solidity indeed
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  Speaker 1: becomes the pen of Him that righted things divine to men.
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  Speaker 1: But must I needs want solidness? Because by metaphors I
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  Speaker 1: speak were not God's laws, his gospel laws in olden
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  Speaker 1: time held forth by types, shadows and metaphors. Yet loathe
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  Speaker 1: will any sober man be to find fault with them,
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  Speaker 1: lest he be found for to assault the highest wisdom. No,
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  Speaker 1: he rather stoops and seeks to find out what by
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  Speaker 1: pins and loops, by calves and sheep, by heiphers, and
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  Speaker 1: by rams, by birds and herbs, and by the blood
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  Speaker 1: of lambs, God speaketh to him. And happy is he
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  Speaker 1: that finds the light and grace that in them be.
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  Speaker 1: But not too forward therefore to conclude that I want solidness,
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  Speaker 1: that I am rude all things solid and shown not solid,
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  Speaker 1: be all things imperiable, despise not we lest things most hurtful.
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  Speaker 1: Lightly we receive, and things that good are of our souls.
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  Speaker 1: Bereave my dark and cloudy was. They do but hold
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  Speaker 1: the truth as cabinets enclose the gold the prophets used
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  Speaker 1: much by metaphors to set forth truth. YEA, whoso considers
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  Speaker 1: Christ his apostles too, shall plainly see that truth. To
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  Speaker 1: this day in such mantles, be am I afraid to
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  Speaker 1: say that Holy writ which for its stalin phrase puts
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  Speaker 1: down all wit, is everywhere so full of these things,
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  Speaker 1: dark figures, allegories. Yet there springs from that same book
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  Speaker 1: that luster, and those rays of light that turn out
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  Speaker 1: darkest nights to days come. Let my carpet to his
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  Speaker 1: life now look and find their darker lines than in
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  Speaker 1: my book he findeth any, yea, And let him know
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  Speaker 1: that in his best things there are worse lines too.
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  Speaker 1: May we but stand before impartial men to his poor one,
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  Speaker 1: I durst adventure ten that they will take my meaning
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  Speaker 1: in these lines far better than his lies. And silver
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  Speaker 1: shrines come truth. Although in swaddling clothes I find informs
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  Speaker 1: the judgment rectifies the mind, pleases the understanding, makes the
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  Speaker 1: will submit the memory to it doth fill with what
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  Speaker 1: doth our imagination please? It tends our troubles to appease
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  Speaker 1: sound words. I know Timothy is to use an old
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  Speaker 1: wives fables he is to refuse, but yet grave poor him.
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  Speaker 1: No word doth forbid the use of parables in which
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  Speaker 1: lay hid that gold, those pearls and precious stones that
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  Speaker 1: were worth digging for, and that with greatest care. Let
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  Speaker 1: me add one word more, O, man of God, art
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  Speaker 1: thou offended? Dost thou wish I had put forth my
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  Speaker 1: matter in another dress? Or that I hadn't things been
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  Speaker 1: more express? Three things? Let me propound than I submit
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  Speaker 1: to those that are my betters, as is fit. One.
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  Speaker 1: I find not that I am denied the use of
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  Speaker 1: this my method. So I no abuse put on the
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  Speaker 1: words things readers, or be rude in handling finger, or
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  Speaker 1: similitude in application, But all that I may seek the
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  Speaker 1: advance of truth this or that way denied? Did I say? Nay?
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  Speaker 1: I have leave example too, and that from them that
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  Speaker 1: have God better pleased by their words or ways than
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  Speaker 1: any any man that breatheth Nowadays. Thus to express my
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  Speaker 1: mind thus to declare things unto THEE that excellentest are. Two.
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  Speaker 1: I find that men as high as trees will write
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  Speaker 1: dialogue wise. Yet no man doth them slight for writing.
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  Speaker 1: So indeed, if they abuse truth, cursed be they in
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  Speaker 1: the craft they used to that intent. But yet let
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  Speaker 1: truth be free to make a sallies upon THEE and me.
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  Speaker 1: Which way pleases God, For who knows how better than
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  Speaker 1: he that taught us first to plow, to guide our
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  Speaker 1: minds and pens for his designs, and he makes base
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  Speaker 1: things usher in divine. Three, I find that Holy written
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  Speaker 1: many places hath semblance with this method. Where the cases
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  Speaker 1: do call for one thing to set forth another use
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  Speaker 1: it I may, then, and yet nothing smother Truth's golden beams. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: by this method may make it cast forth its rays
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  Speaker 1: as light as day. And now before I do put
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  Speaker 1: up my pen, I'll show the profit of my book,
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  Speaker 1: and then commit both THEE and it into their hand
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  Speaker 1: that pulls the strong down and makes weak ones stand.
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  Speaker 1: This book it chalketh out before thine eyes. The man
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  Speaker 1: that seeks the everlasting prize. It shows you whence he
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  Speaker 1: comes whither he goes what he leaves undone. Also what
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  Speaker 1: he does. It also shows you how he runs and
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  Speaker 1: runs till he until the gate of Glory comes. It
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  Speaker 1: shows too who set out for life and main as
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  Speaker 1: if the lasting crown they would obtain. Here also you
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  Speaker 1: may see the reason why they lose their labor, and
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  Speaker 1: like fools do die. This book will make a traveler
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  Speaker 1: of thee, if by its counsel thou wilt rul it be,
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  Speaker 1: it will direct thee to the Holy Land. If thou
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  Speaker 1: wilt its directions understand, yea will make the slothful active,
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  Speaker 1: be the blind also delightful things to see? Art thou
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  Speaker 1: for something rare and profitable? Or wouldst thou see a
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  Speaker 1: truth within a fable? Art thou forgetful? What'dst thou remember
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  Speaker 1: from New Year's Day to the last of December? Then
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  Speaker 1: read my fam They will stick like burds, and maybe
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  Speaker 1: to the helpless comforters. This book is writ in such
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  Speaker 1: a dialect as may the minds of listless men affect.
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  Speaker 1: It seems a novelty, and yet contains nothing but sound
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  Speaker 1: and honest gospel strains. Wouldst thou divert thyself for melancholy?
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  Speaker 1: Wouldst thou be pleasant yet be far from folly. Wouldst
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  Speaker 1: thou read riddles and their explanation, or else be drowned
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  Speaker 1: in thy contemplation. Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst
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  Speaker 1: thou see a man in the clouds and hear him
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  Speaker 1: speak to thee? Wouldst thou be in a dream and
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  Speaker 1: yet not sleep, Or wouldst thou in a moment laugh
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  Speaker 1: and weep? Wouldst thou lose thyself and catch no harm,
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  Speaker 1: and find thyself again without a charm? Wouldst read thyself
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  Speaker 1: and read thou know'st not what, and yet know whether
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  Speaker 1: thout blessed or not by reading the same lines. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: then come hither and lay my book, thy head and
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  Speaker 1: heart together. End of Part one The Year Author's apology
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  Speaker 1: for his book