Art thou forgetful? Wouldest thou remember
From New-year's day to the last of December?
Then read my fancies; they will stick like burs,
And may be to the helpless comforters.

As

This book is writ in such a dialect

may

the minds of listless men affect: It seems a novelty, and yet contains

Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains.

Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy?
Wouldst thou be pleasant, yet be far from folĺy?
Wouldst thou read riddles and their explanation?
Or else be drowned in thy contemplation ?
Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou see
A man i' the clouds, and hear him speak to thee?
Wouldst thou be in a dream, and yet not sleep?
Or wouldst thou in a moment laugh and weep?
Wouldest thou lose thyself and catch no harm,
And find thyself again without a charm?

Wouldst read thyself, and read thou know'st not what,
And yet know whether thou art blest or not,
By reading the same lines? O then come hither!
And lay my book, thy head, and heart together.

JOHN BUNYAN.

THE GAOL.

S I walked through the wilder-
ness of this world, I lighted on
a certain place where
was a den, and laid me
down in that place to sleep; and,
as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I
dreamed, and behold I saw a man

clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with
his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and
a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw

1 Isa. lxiv. 6. Luke, xiv. 33. Psalm xxxviii. 4. Heb. ii. 2. Acts, xvi. 31.

him open the book, and read therein, and as he read he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable

HIS OUTCRY. cry, saying, "What shall I do!"2

In this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased; wherefore, at length, he brake his mind to his wife and children, and thus he began to talk to them: "O! my dear wife (said he), and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me: Moreover, I am for certain informed, that THIS WORLD. this our city will be burnt with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow both myself, with thee my wife, and you my sweet babes, shall miserHE KNOWS NO ably come to ruin, except (the which WAY OF ESCAPE yet I see not) some way of escape may be found, whereby we may be delivered. At this his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed; but the night was as troublesome to him as the day: wherefore instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did; he told them, Worse and worse. He also set to talking to them again; but they began to 2 Acts, ii. 37.

AS YET.

CARNAL PHYSIC

SOUL.

be hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and FOR A SICK surly carriage to him: Sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him; wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber to pray for and pity them, and also to condole his own misery: he would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying; and thus for some days he spent his time.

Now I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, 66 "What shall I do to be saved?"3

I saw also, that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry?

He answered, Sir, I perceive, by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.4

Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is attended with so many evils? The man answered, Because I fear that this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet.5 And, Sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit to go to judgment, and from

3 Acts, xvi. 30, 31.

Heb. ix. 27. Job, x. 21, 22. Ezek. xxii. 14.

5 Isa. xxx. 33.