d
found no better form of expression for itself than verse. His especial
gift was for allegory, the single form of imaginative fiction which he
would not have considered trivial, and his especial instrument was
plain, unaffected Saxon prose. 'The Holy War' is a people's Paradise
Lost and Paradise Regained in one. The 'Life of Mr. Badman' is a
didactic tale, describing the career of a vulgar, middle-class,
unprincipled scoundrel.

These are properly Bunyan's 'works,' the results of his life so far as
it affects the present generation of Englishmen; and as they are
little known, I shall give an account of each of them.

The 'Life of Badman' is presented as a dialogue between Mr. Wiseman
and Mr. Attentive. Mr. Wiseman tells the story, Mr. Attentive comments
upon it. The names recall Bunyan's well-known manner. The figures
stand for typical characters; but as the _dramatis personae_ of many
writers of fiction, while professing to be beings of flesh and blood
are no more than shadows, so Bunyan's shadows are solid men whom we
can feel and handle.

Mr. Badman is, of course, one of the 'reprobate.' Bunyan considered
theoretically that a reprobate may to outward appearance have the
graces of a saint, and that there may be little in his conduct to mark
his true character. A reprobate may be sorry for his sins, he may
repent and lead a good life. He may reverence good men and may try to
resemble them; he may pray, and his prayers may be answered; he may
have the spirit of God, and may receive another heart, and yet he may
be under the covenant of works, and may be eternally lost. This
Bunyan could say while he was writing theology; but art has its rules
as well as its more serious sister, and when he had to draw a living
specimen, he drew him as he had seen him in his own Bedford
neighbourhood.

Badman showed from childhood a propensity for evil. He was so
'addicted to lying that his parents could not distinguish when he was
speaking the truth. He would invent, tell, and stand to the lies which
he invented, with such an audacious face, that one might read in his
very countenance the symptoms of a hard and desperate heart. It was
not the fault of his parents; they were much dejected at the
beginnings of their son, nor did he want counsel and correction, if
that would have made him better: but all availed nothing.'

Lying was not Badman's only fault. He took to pilfering and stealing.
He robbed his neighbours' orchards. He p