CHAPTER VII. THE PURITAN AGE (1620-1660)lows, in which are pictured many of our own spiritual ex-
periences. There is the Slough of Despond, into which we
all have fallen, out of which Pliable scrambles on the hither
side and goes back grumbling, but through which Christian
struggles mightily till Helpful stretches him a hand and drags
him out on solid ground and bids him go on his way. Then
come Interpreter’s house, the Palace Beautiful, the Lions in
the way, the Valley of Humiliation, the hard fight with the de-
mon Apollyon, the more terrible Valley of the Shadow, Van-
ity Fair, and the trial of Faithful. The latter is condemned
to death by a jury made up of Mr. Blindman, Mr. Nogood,
Mr. Heady, Mr. Liveloose, Mr. Hatelight, and others of their
kind to whom questions of justice are committed by the jury
system. Most famous is Doubting Castle, where Christian
and Hopeful are thrown into a dungeon by Giant Despair.
And then at last the Delectable Mountains of Youth, the deep
river that Christian must cross, and the city of All Delight and
the glorious company of angels that come singing down the
streets. At the very end, when in sight of the city and while
he can hear the welcome with which Christian is greeted, Ig-
norance is snatched away to go to his own place; and Bun-
yan quaintly observes, "Then I saw that there was a way to
hell even from the gates of heaven as well as from the city of
Destruction. So I awoke, and behold it was a dream!"
Such, in brief, is the story, the great epic of a Puritan’s indi-
vidual experience in a rough world, just asParadise Lostwas
the epic of mankind as dreamed by the great Puritan who had
"fallen asleep over his Bible."
The chief fact which confronts the student of literature as he
pauses before this great allegory is that it has been translated
into seventy-five languages and dialects, and has been read
more than any other book save one in the English language.
As for the secret of its popularity, Taine says, "Next to
the Bible, the book most widely read in England is thePil-
grim’s Progress.... Protestantism is the doctrine of salvation by