PILGRIM’S PROGRESS PROM THIS WORLD TO THAT WHICH IS TO COME. DELIVERED UNDER THE SIMILITUDE OF A DREA M. WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED, THE MANNER OF HIS SETTING OUT; HIS DANGEROUS JOURNEY, AND SAFE ARRIVAL AT THE DESIRED COUNTRY. BY JOHN BUNYAN. ACCURATELY PRINTED FROM THE FIRST EDITION, WITH NOTICES OF ALL THE SUBSEQUENT English Besuchamp 10-20 72147 Add.cop 12-11-50MFP ADVERTISEMENT. AFTER twelve months' labour, attended with an anxious wish to do justice to our great pilgrim forefather, John Bunyan, and his wondrous Pilgrimage, this volume is submitted, with respectful deference, to the judgment of the members of the Hanserd Knollys Society. A correspondence with the late Mr. Southey, when he undertook a similar task, led me to expect great difficulties ; an expectation which has been fully realized. He thus expressed himself in a letter addressed to Mr. Major, dated Keswick, 21st March, 1829.1 “It has put me upon a careful collation of the text, and I do not repent of the unexpected labour which has been thus occasioned, as it will be the means of presenting the work in Bunyan's own vigorous vernacular English, which has been greatly corrupted in the easiest and worst of all ways—that of compositors and correctors following inadvertently their own mode of speech. The copy of Heptinstall's edition has been of use in that collation ; and sometimes in the one which goes to press, corrupt as it is, I have found a better reading than in the folio. These are minute pains of which the public will know nothing, but of which a few readers will feel the worth. A correct text has appeared to me (who, both as a verseman and a proseman, am a weigher of words and sentences) of so much consequence since I undertook the collation, that I should like to correct the proofs myself.” Mr. Major informs us that "every proof-sheet was transmitted to Mr. Southey at Keswick, and the modern printer, whom he lately heard exulting in the beauty of a large-paper bound copy, now mellowed and glossy with comparative age, was as happy in minutely following his 'copy' as former mar-texts seem to have been in perpetuating, if not engendering, the foulest errors.” 6 1 Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1844. ! And after all these cares, that beautifully printed volume is full of errors. It must be allowed that Mr. Southey was at a vast distance from the press, and that not having the great advantage of consulting the original editions, he had to weigh the various readings. Finding “Heman” one of the Lord's champions in Heptinstall's edition, changed for Haman in another, and then to Mordecai in a third, he unfortunately preferred the last to the true reading of Bunyan, who had named as the champion the humble unassuming Psalmist Heman. The edition now presented to the Society is carefully corrected from Bunyan's first copy, which is followed literally, in the orthography, capitals, italics, and punctuation. Every omission or alteration that the author made during his life is noted, as well as the edition in which such alterations first appeared. Where the author in the second part refers to the first his figures are retained, but a reference is added to this edition in parenthesis. All the original wood-cuts are accurately copied by that very excellent and worthy artist, Mr. Thomas Gilks, of Fenchurch Buildings. Every reference has been proved, and where there appeared an evident typographical error it is corrected; but in all such cases the alteration is noted at the foot of the page. Restored to its original state, the reader will find that the colloquial Saxon-English used by John Bunyan is by far the best medium through which his narrative can be told. The great popular error, with regard to this extraordinary book, has been a notion that no unlettered man, from his own resources, however fertile, could have written it; more especially while slut up in a prison. Let every reader impartially examine the evidence produced in the Introduction, proving that the Pilgrim's Progress was written in prison, and that no sentence or idea was borrowed in its composition : coming to this conclusion, then must he be deeply affected with the consideration that divine teaching, aided by the bible alone, performed that which all previous human learning, however profound, had been unable to accomplish. We may safely conclude that all the author's trials, and sufferings, and deep experience, were intended to fit him for this important work, which no man, fettered with conventional or educational trammels, could have effected. If the editor has been severe upon a system of compulsory ceremonies, which has ever entailed misery upon all countries 2 · Southey's Edition, p. 170. Heptinstall, 163. Hanserd Knollys Society, 156. in which it has existed, he pleads his conscientious indignation while reviewing the cruelties practised upon our pilgrim forefathers, and among them upon the high-minded, unflinching, honourable author of the Pilgrim's Progress; who was dragged from the arms of an affectionate family, incarcerated in a damp prison situated upon the bed of a river for nearly thirteen years, and threatened with an ignominious death, for holding and frequenting assemblies for religious worship, sanctioned by the authority of Jesus Christ, but prohibited by Acts of Parliament. The Jews crucified the Saviour, pagans tormented by cruel deaths his disciples, and all state religionists, whether popish or protestant, have offered up to the Moloch UNIFORMITY their holocaust of human victims. Even under the Commonwealth certain tryers were empowered to deprive ungodly, imbecile, traitorous priests, or pluralists, of their livings,—a power which should exist only in the churches under their ministry. Many who have written of Bunyan and his trials have restrained their feelings because these cruelties were perpetrated under the sanction of law. Did Danielor the Hebrew youths temporise when violation of unholy laws subjected them to the lions' den or fiery furnace? If such writers were called upon by law to worship Mahomet, and deny Christ, would they obey? If required to give up their children as a burnt sacrifice, would they obey ? Does God require us with our spirits to obey him, rather than man when human laws trench upon the divine prerogatives ? Dare we hesitate ? Who is to judge? Who can judge ? But the individual whose naked soul must answer for itself, before the judgment-seat of God. Those who seek the yoke of the state merely to aid them in obtaining wealth and honour, under the pretext of curing souls, have ignorantly spoken of dissenters with contempt—and shall not the Christian be faithful to them? We are bound by our allegiance to Christ to seek peace with all men ; but we are equally bound to be faithful when dealing with the systems of the oppressor ; more especially when he appears as a “man black of flesh, but covered with a very light robe.” 1 Our controversy is not with individuals, many of whom are worthy our highest esteem, but who submit to a system, which, in our opinion is opposed to the spread of Christianity. The weapons of our warfare, are not rates, tithes, fines, imprisonments, tortures, or death ; but are spiritual, and able to pull down those strongholds which defy all the carnal weapons that ever were or can be invented. i Pilgrim's Progress, p. 179. 1 |