show with the stage of a mountebank, two separate plates prefixed to chapters v. and xxvii., have been referred to as the originals of the elaborate description of Vanity Fair, with which neither the text nor the plates of the Dutch work have anything in common. Lastly Will-kin begins to boast of her own works, and notwithstanding the entreaties of her sister Dove-kin, she mounts a lofty and dangerous rock in order to obtain a better prospect; but she is thence blown down by the wind of vanity into a deep pit full of noxious creatures, whence she cannot be delivered. The interior of this place is represented in the plate prefixed to chapter xxxii.; and as it exhibits Will-kin deploring her miserable condition in darkness, in the midst of a subterranean marsh, surrounded by serpents hissing at her, with lightning and storm pouring down upon her, the scene has been thought to have prefigured the Valley of the Shadow of Death in the Pilgrim's Progress. But the place of woe in the Dutch allegory is one of final despair, lying out of the traveller's road, and the way to the Celestial City lay through the midst of the land of temporary distress described by Bunyan. The truth, however, is, that the same volume which supplied him with the inimitable title of "the Valley of the Shadow of Death," also furnished such a description of it as no pictorial representation could either suggest or express; and he refers at once to his authority by taking the words of the Prophet Jeremiah into his text. The Holy Scriptures, then, with the Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, appear to have contained all the literary materials possessed by Bunyan when he "lighted on a certain place in the wilderness of this world where there was a den;" for there is not anything in all his Pilgrim's Progress which cannot be satisfactorily referred to one of these, and this conclusion is in strict accordance with the uniform statement that they were the only books that he had with him in the prison. With respect to great similarities existing between some of the incidents of Bunyan and engraved emblems, the answer is plain, that the images in both were derived from the Scriptures, and therefore common to several different collections; that most of those books were probably never seen, and would certainly have been altogether disregarded, by him; and that his peculiar manner of treating his subjects proves the source to which he was indebted. Mr. Montgomery has noticed that a poem entitled the Pilgrimage, in Geoffrey Whitney's Emblems, first published at Leyden, in 1586, with the en

graving prefixed to it, may have suggested the first idea of the story; for, he continues, if Bunyan had had Whitney's pic. ture before him he could not more accurately have copied it in words, than in the passage where Evangelist directs Christian to the wicket-gate. In addition, however, to his being familiar with this image in the New Testament, it had been long since actually exhibited to him in a dream, which he has recorded in his Grace Abounding.

This

There seems never to have been any supposition that the Pilgrim's Progress was in the slightest degree indebted to The Parable of the Pilgrim, written by Dr. Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely, and published in a thick small quarto in 1665. work contains very few incidents, being little more than a series of long conversations between the pilgrim and his guide; it is well written in the language of the time, though somewhat heavy, and it contains not a few Roman Catholic legends; which have occasioned the remark "that Bunyan's Pilgrim is a Christian, but that Patrick's is a pedlar who deals in damaged wares."

With this work the present bibliographical notices may properly be concluded; but as it may be curious to put upon record the titles of some other books bearing titles somewhat similar to that of Bunyan, which are standing proofs of his originality and superiority,—a short list of them is here added, with the names of a few more, that are evidently modern imitations of the immortal Pilgrim's Progress.

The Pilgrimage to Paradise; compiled for the direction, comfort, and resolution of God's poore distressed children in passing through this irksome wildernesse of temptation and tryall. By Leonard Wright.

Lond. 1591. 4to.

The Pilgrim's Journey towards Heaven. By William Webster. Lond.

1613. 8vo.

The Pilgrim's Practice, containing many Godly Prayers. By Robert Bruen. Lond. 1621. 8vo.

Two Treatises: namely, the Pearl of the Gospel, and the Pilgrim's Profession; with a glasse for gentlewomen to dress themselves by. By the Rev. Thomas Taylor, D.D. Lond. 1624. 8vo.

The Pilgrim's Passe to the New Jerusalem: or the serious Christian his enquiries after heaven. By M. R. Gent. Lond. 1659. 12mo.-A Collection of seven meditations on different passages of Scripture; the first of which is called "Abraham's profession and the pilgrim's condition: or the enquiring sojourner directed: a meditation on Genesis xxiii. 4."

The Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity. By Francis Bugg. Lond. 1698. 4to.

The Spiritual Pilgrim, or the Christian's Journey to the New Jerusalem By Henry Wilson. Lond. 1710. 12mo.

Desiderius, or the original Pilgrim: a divine dialogue from the Spanish. By the Rev. Laurence Howel. Lond. 1717. 8vo.

The Female Pilgrim, or the Travels of Hephzibah: under the similitude of a dream. Lond. 1762. 8vo.

The Christian Pilgrim. By John Allen. Lond. 1800. 8vo.

The Pilgrimage of Theophilus to the City of God. Wellington, Salop. 1812. 8vo.

I owe much of this chapter to a literary friend, who will not allow me to name him; although I only furnished him with Boulsvert's Pilgrim, Charles Doe's Circular, and a few desultory hints, in proof of the fact that the Pilgrim's Progress grew out of "The Strait Gate." It will be observed that nothing is said of the Third part of the Pilgrim's Progress : I cannot join in this silence. That work may not be Bunyan's; but it is the production of a man of real genius. Mr. Newton said, that it was not like Aaron's rod which budded. It is, however, so highly wrought, and richly gemmed, that it is in some points, very like the Ark which enshrined that rod. Accordingly, Bunyan's first Biographer claims it for him; al. though his first Editor does not even mention it. My chief difficulty lies in the artificial structure of the work. Parts of it are like Dr. Patrick, and some of it is worthy of Butler. The diamond cave of Contemplation is worthy even of Milton. For my own part, therefore, I should be glad to find that it was Bunyan's. It is certainly not like him; but it is any thing but unworthy of him. The Critics who despise it are no craftsmen, whatever else they may be. They forget, also, that the Life of Badman is a fourth form of Pilgrimage, in Bunyan's opinion, although there is no allegory in it. Bunyan, at least, says so; and he is surely the best judge of his own designs. See the Preface to the Life and Death of Mr. Badman.

CHAPTER XLV.

BUNYAN'S LAST DAYS.

BUNYAN evidently dreaded every new crisis in public affairs. He had reason to do so. Venner's conspiracy increased the severity of his first six years' imprisonment. On the occasion of the fire in London, he was thrown into prison again. As soon after James II. came to the throne, in 1685, Bunyan conveyed the whole of his property to his wife, by a singular deed, which can only be accounted for by his suspicions of James and Jefferies, and by his horror at the revocation of the Edict of Nantz. The asylum which the Refugees found in England, did not prove to him that he was safe. No wonder. "KIRKE and his lambs were abroad, and the Bedford Justices still in power.'

It was under these suspicious circumstances, that he divested himself of all his property, in order to save his family from want, should he again be made a victim. These coincidences give a peculiar interest to the Deed of Conveyance; a fac simile of which, from the original, is now presented to the pub. lic. The history of its transmission I am unable to give. There is, however, not the shadow of a doubt rests upon its authenticity. Bunyan's own signature is unquestionable. I have been able also to verify that by the Instrument in which Ruffhead conveyed to Bunyan the ground on which his Chapel was built. The original is now endorsed on the back thus: "This Will is left by indenture hereunto subscribed, to the Rev. Samuel Hillyard, Minister of Bunyan's Meeting, to be presented to the Trustees of the said Meeting, to be held by them in continuance. Dated this 26th day of October, 1832. Bedford. Witness, A. Brandram, Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society; G. P. Livius; J. S. Grimshaw, Vicar of Biddenham." 66 According to the above statement, this writing of John Bunyan's was put into my hand at the death

of Mrs. Livius, and it is my wish that it should be attached to the Church Book. Samuel Hillyard." "Witness, Robert Philip, Author of the Life and Times of Bunyan; William White, Bookseller. Bedford, October 30th, 1838." Mrs. Livius, if not a descendant, was, I think, in some way related to the Bunyan family.

It will be seen that the Deed would not have secured the entire property to Mrs. Bunyan. It shows, however, Bunyan's solicitude for her comfort, and his confidence in her prudence. And his Elizabeth well deserved both!

Whatever Bunyan may have feared when he thus disposed of all of the little property he had, nothing befel him under James II. He published "The Pharisee and Publican,” in 1685; the year of the King's accession: and in 1688, Charles Doe says, "he published six Books (being the time of K. James II.'s Liberty of Conscience.") This appears from Doe's list. It throws also much light upon Bunyan's death. Such labour could not fail to sap his strength, even if he did nothing but carry the six Books through the Press; for none of them are small, except the last. The usual account of Bunyan's death is, that he caught cold, whilst returning from Reading to Lon. don on horseback. Violent fever ensued, and after an illness of ten days, he resigned his spirit. Now all this is as true as it is brief: but is not all the truth. "He was seized with a sweating distemper," says Doe, "after he published six books; which, after some weeks going about, proved his death.” Doe's Circular. This fact was not known even to his first Biographer. The Sketch in the British Museum states, that “taking a tedious journey in a slabby rainy day, and returning late to London, he was entertained by one Mr. Strudwick, a Grocer on Snow Hill, with all the kind endearments of a loving friend; but soon found himself indisposed with a kind of shaking, as it were an ague, which increasing to a kind of fever, he took to his bed, where, growing worse, he found he had not long to last in this world, and therefore prepared himself for another, towards which he had been journeying as a Pilgrim and stranger upon earth, the prime of his days."P. 35.

The occasion of his journey to Reading, which has always been called, "a labour of love and charity," will now be more interesting than it hitherto has been. It was not undertaken by a man in health; but by an over-wrought Author, sinking