a few months.  Returning to Elstow, he
     again worked at the forge, and married.  After various
     alternating religious experiences, in 1655 he became a member
     of the Baptist congregation at Bedford, of which he was ere
     long chosen pastor.  His success was extraordinary; but after
     five years his ministry was prohibited, and he was
     incarcerated in Bedford Gaol, his imprisonment lasting for
     twelve years.  There he wrote his immortal “Pilgrim’s
     Progress.”  Released under the Act of Indulgence, he resumed
     his ministry, and ultimately his pastoral charge in Bedford. 
     He took fever when on a visit to London, and died on August
     31, 1688.  The “Holy War” is considered by critics even
     superior to the “Pilgrim,” inasmuch as it betrays a finer
     literary workmanship.  It was written in 1682, after
     molestation of Bunyan as a preacher had ceased, and when he
     was known widely as the author of the first part of the
     “Pilgrim’s Progress,” the second part of which was published
     two years later.  Macaulay held that if there had been no
     “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Holy War” would have been the first of
     religious allegories.  No doubt its popularity has been due in
     some degree to its kinship to that work; but the vigour of its
     style overcomes the minute elaboration of an almost impossible
     theme, and the book lives, alike as literature and theology,
     by its own vitality.  An elaborate analysis of it may be found
     in Froude’s volume on Bunyan.  He said of it:  “‘The Holy War’
     would have entitled Bunyan to a place among the masters of
     English Literature.”

I.—­The Founding of Mansoul

In the gallant country of Universe there is a fair and delicate town, a corporation called Mansoul, a town for its building so curious, for its situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, that there is not its equal under the whole heaven.

As to the situation of the town, it lieth between two worlds, and the first founder and builder of it was one Shaddai, who built it for his own delight.  And as he made it goodly to behold, so also mighty to have dominion over all the country round about.

There was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and stately place—­for strength it may be called a castle; for pleasantness, a paradise.  This place King Shaddai intended for himself alone, and not another with him; and of it he made a garrison, but committed the keeping of it only to the men of the town.

This famous town of Mansoul had five gates—­Eargate, Eyegate, Mouthgate, Nosegate, and Feelgate.  It had always a sufficiency of provisions within its walls, and it had the best, most wholesome and excellent law that was then extant in the world.  There was not a rogue, rascal, or traitorous person within its walls; they were all true men, and fast joined together.