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or; the Palace Beautiful, Graces Hall; Vanity Town is Mundus; the Giant, is Giant Desperation of Diffident Castle; and the prisoners released from it, instead of Mr. Despondency and his daughter Much-afraid, are one Much-cast-down, and his kinsman Almost Overcome." This would appear to have been merely the device of some knavish bookseller for evading the laws which protect literary property; but the person employed in disguising the stolen goods must have been a Roman Catholic, for he has omitted all mention of Giant Pope, and Fidelius suffers Martyrdom by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. The dialogues are much curtailed, and the book, as might be expected, very much worsened throughout; except that better verses are inserted.

Bunyan could little have supposed that his book would ever be adapted for sale among t the Romanists. Whether this was done in the earliest French translation I do not know; but in the second there is no Giant Pope; and lest the circumstances of the author should operate unfavourably for the reception of his work, he is designated as un Ministre Anglois, nommé Jean Bunian, Pasteur d'une Eglise dans la Ville de Bedfort en Angleterre. This contains only the First Part, but promises the Second, should it be well received. The First Part, under the title of le Pelerinage d'un nommé Chrétien, forms one of the volumes of the Petite Bibliothèque du Catholique, and bears in the title page a glorified head of the Virgin. A Portuguese translation, (of the First Part also,) and in like manner cut down to the opinions of the public for which it was designed, was published in 1782. Indeed I believe there is no European language into which the Pilgrim's Progress has not been translated. The Holy War has been little less popular; and if the Life and Death of Mr. Badman has not been as generally read, it is because the subject is less agreeable, not that it has been treated with inferior ability.

I have only now to express my thanks to Mr. Rodd the bookseller, for the information with which he kindly assisted me; and to Mr. Major, who in publishing the most beautiful edition that has ever appeared of this famous book, has, by sparing no zeal in the collection of materials for it, enabled me to say that it is also the most correct.

In one of the volumes collected from various quarters, which were sent me for this purpose, I observe the name of W. Hone, and notice it that I may take the opportunity of recommending his Every-Day Book, and Table Book, to those who are interested in the preservation of our national and local customs. By these very curious publications their compiler has rendered good service in an important department of literature; and he may render yet more if he obtain the encouragement which he well deserves.

LINES

ON SEEING THE PORTRAIT OF

JOHN BUNYAN,

ENGRAVED FOR THIS WORK.

And this is BUNYAN! How unlike the dull,
Unmeaning visage which was wont to stand
His PILGRIM's Frontispiece,-its pond'rous skull
Propp'd gracelessly on an enormous hand;-
A countenance one vainly might have scann'd
For one bright ray of genius or of sense;

Much less the mental power of him who plann'd
This fabric quaint of rare intelligence,

And, having rear'd its pile, became immortal thence.

But here we trace, indelibly defined,

All his admirers' fondest hopes could crave,
Shrewdness of intellect, and strength of mind,
Devout, yet lively, and acute though grave;
Worthy of Him whose rare invention gave
To serious Truth the charm of Fiction's dress,
Yet in that fiction sought the soul to save
From earth and sin for heaven and happiness,
And by his fancied dreams men's waking hours to bless.

Delightful Author! while I look upon

This striking Portraiture of Thee-I seem
As if my thoughts on Pilgrimage were gone
Down the far vista of thy pleasant Dream,

Whose varied scenes with vivid wonders teem.-
SLOUGH OF DESPOND! Thy terrors strike mine eye;
Over the WICKET-GATE I see the gleam

Of SHINING LIGHT; and catch that Mountain high,
Of DIFFICULT ascent, the Pilgrim's faith to try.

* For the Authenticity of the Likeness here faithfully copied, vide Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting by Dallaway, vol. iii. p. 262. J. M.

xciv

The HOUSE call'd BEAUTIFUL; the lowly VALE
Of SELF-HUMILIATION, where the might
Of CHRISTIAN panoplied in heavenly mail,
O'ercame APOLLYON in that fearful fight;

The VALLEY, named of DEATH, by shades of night
Encompass'd, and with horrid phantoms rife ;

The TOWN OF VANITY, where bigot spite,

Ever with Christian Pilgrimage at strife,

To martyr'd FAITHFUL gave the Crown of endless Life!
Thence, on with Christian, and his HOPEFUL peer,
TO DOUBTING CASTLE'S dungeons I descend;
The KEY OF PROMISE opes those vaults of fear ;-
And now o'er Hills DelectabBLE I wend

TO BEULAH'S SUNNY PLAINS, where sweetly blend
Of flowers, and fruits, and song a blissful maze;
'Till at the BRIDGE-LESS STREAM my course I end,
Eyeing the farther shore with rapture's gaze,
Where that BRIGHT CITY basks in glory's sun-less blaze!
Immortal Dreamer! while thy magic page

To such celestial visions can give birth,
Well may this Portraiture our love engage,
Which gives, with grace congenial to thy worth,
The form thy living features wore on earth:

For few may boast a juster, prouder claim

Than thine, whose labours blending harmless mirth

With sagest counsel's higher, holier aim,

Have from the wise and good won honourable Fame.

And still for marvelling Childhood, blooming Youth,
Ripe Manhood, silver-tress'd and serious Age,—
Ingenious Fancy, and instructive Truth,

Richly adorn thy allegoric page,

Pointing the warfare Christians yet must wage,
Who wish to journey on that heavenly road;
And tracing clearly each successive stage

Of the rough path thy holy Travellers trod,

The PILGRIM'S PROGRESS marks to glory, and to GOD!