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vi Mr. Gifford, pastor of a Baptist congregation at Bedford, who soothed him with sensible talk. Once relieved from the ghostly despair which had beset him, he threw himself with the same imaginative fervor into the mystical joys of the saved. Going home one day from a neighboring village, where he had heard a sermon preached on the words of Solomon's Song, " Behold, thou art fair, my Love," his spirit was so kindled by the amorous exaltation of the text that he was fain to cry out concerning God's love and mercy " even to the very Crows that sat upon the plowed lands." It is worth while, even in a hasty consideration of Bunyan's life, to rest upon these troubled years of his youth and early manhood, because, though they are almost devoid of external incident, they show us the springs of his nature and let us into the secret of his creative powers as a writer. The dreams and visions which peopled his world with supernatural presences, malign and benignant, the uncon- trollable waves of feeling which plunged him into maniacal despair, and without warning lifted him to heights of mys- tical ecstasy, betray the poetic temperament which was to utter itself in the most vivid and concrete symbols at its disposal ; the seriousness which urged him to confront des- perately the large issues of life and destiny show that this poetry was to be, above all, instinct with moral purpose. The Pilgrim's Progress was a natural outcome of the far stranger journey which the spirit of the Elstow tinker lad took, as he went about his tasks along the fields and roads of Bedfordshire.

When he had once found his way to the light, it was not in Bunyan's nature to rest in passive enjoyment of the com- fort which had fallen to him. Urged by his neighbors, who had doubtless often been impressed by his homely elo- quence, he began to speak at small religious gatherings in the neighborhood, and finally entered upon a regular course of preaching. There is a touch of pride in the tone in which he speaks of exercising " his Gift." and indeed the