By reading the same lines? Oh, then come hither,
And lay my book, thy head, and heart together.
THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS In the Similitude of a Dream
{10} As I walked through the wilderness of this world,
I lighted on a certain place where was a Den , and
I 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.
[Isa. 64:6; Luke 14:33; Ps. 38:4; Hab. 2:2; Acts
16:30,31] I looked, and saw 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 cry, saying, “What shall I
do?” [Acts 2:37]
{11} 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 our city will
be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow,
both myself, with thee my wife, and you my sweet babes,
shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet
I see not) some way of escape can 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 be hardened.
They also thought to drive away his distemper by
harsh and surly carriages 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.
{12} 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,
“What shall I do to be saved?”
{13} 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? [Job 33:23]
