The “Pilgrim’s Progress” was begun during Bunyan’s second and
     briefer term of imprisonment in Bedford gaol.  As originally
     conceived, the work was something entirely different from the
     masterpiece that was finally produced.  Engaged upon a
     religious treatise, Bunyan had occasion to compare Christian
     progress to a pilgrimage—­a simile by no means uncommon even
     in those days.  Soon he discovered a number of points which had
     escaped his predecessors, and countless images began to crowd
     quickly upon his imaginative brain.  Released at last from
     gaol, he still continued his work, acquainting no one with his
     labours, and receiving the help of none.  The “Pilgrim,” on its
     appearance in 1678, was but a moderate success; but it was not
     long before its charm made itself felt, and John Bunyan
     counted his readers by the thousand in Scotland, in the
     Colonies, in Holland, and among the Huguenots of France. 
     Within ten years 100,000 copies were sold.  With the exception
     of the Bible, it is, perhaps, the most widely-read book in the
     English language, and has been translated into seventy foreign
     tongues.

I.—­The Battle with Apollyon

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where there was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream.  I dreamed I saw a man, clothed with rags, standing with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.

“O my dear wife and children!” he said, “I am informed that our city will be burnt with fire from heaven.  We shall all come to ruin unless we can find a way of escape!”

His relations and friends thought that some distemper had got into his head; but he kept crying, in spite of all that they said to quieten him, “What shall I do to be saved?” He looked this way and that way, but could not tell which road to take.  And a man named Evangelist came to him, and he said to Evangelist, “Whither must I fly?”

“Do you see yonder wicket gate?” said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field.  “Go there, and knock, and you will be told what to do.”

I saw in my dream that the man began to run, and his wife and children cried after him to return, but the man ran on, crying, “Life! life! eternal life!”

Two of his neighbours pursued him and overtook him.  Their names were Obstinate and Pliable.

“Come, come, friend Christian,” said Obstinate.  “Why are you hurrying away in this manner from the City of Destruction, in which you were born?”

“Because I have read in my book,” replied Christian, “that it will be consumed with fire from heaven.  I pray you, good neighbours, come with me, and seek for some way of escape.”

After listening to all that Christian said, Pliable resolved to go with him, but Obstinate returned to the City of Destruction in scorn.