They were also of them that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord.”  And after that they shut up the gates:  which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them.

Now while I was gazing upon all these things, I turned my head to look back, and saw Ignorance come up to the river side; but he soon got over, and that without half the difficulty which the other two men met with.  For it happened that there was then in the place one Vain-hope, a ferry-man, that with his boat helped him over; so he, as the others I saw, did ascend the hill, to come up to the gate; only he came alone; neither did any meet him with the least encouragement.  When he was come up to the gate, he looked up to the writing that was above, and then began to knock, supposing that entrance should have been quickly administered to him; but he was asked by the men that looked over the top of the gate, Whence came you? and what would you have?  He answered, I have ate and drank in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our streets.  Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go in and show it to the King:  so he fumbled in his bosom for one, and found none.  Then said they, Have you none? but the man answered never a word.  So they told the King, but he would not come down to see him, but commanded the two Shining Ones, that conducted Christian and Hopeful to the city, to go out, and take Ignorance, and bind him, hand and foot, and have him away.  Then they took him up, and carried him through the air, to the door that I saw in the side of the hill, and put him in there.  Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gate of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction.  So I awoke, and behold it was a dream.

THE PILGRIM

Who would true valor see
  Let him come hither! 
One here will constant be,
  Come wind, come weather;
There’s no discouragement
  Shall make him once relent
His first-avow’d intent
  To be a Pilgrim.

Whoso beset him round
  With dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound;
  His strength the more is. 
No lion can him fright;
  He’ll with a giant fight;
But he will have a right
  To be a Pilgrim.

Nor enemy, nor fiend,
  Can daunt his spirit;
He knows he at the end
  Shall Life inherit:—­
Then, fancies, fly away;
  He’ll not fear what men say;
He’ll labor, night and day,
  To be a Pilgrim.

_—­J.  Bunyan_

THE GREAT STONE FACE

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face.  They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features.