as
good as the best, and as beautiful as he that had the most of it.' 'He
took great delight in praising himself, and as much in the praises
that others gave him.' 'He could not abide that any should think
themselves above him, or that their wit and personage should be by
others set before his.' He had an objection, nevertheless, to being
called proud, and when Mr. Attentive asked why, his companion answered
with a touch which reminds us of De Foe, that 'Badman _did not tell
him the reason_. He supposed it to be that which was common to all
vile persons. They loved their vice, but cared not to bear its name.'
Badman said he was unwilling to seem singular and fantastical, and in
this way he justified his expensive and luxurious way of living.
Singularity of all kinds he affected to dislike, and for that reason
his special pleasure was to note the faults of professors. 'If he
could get anything by the end that had scandal in it, if it did but
touch professors, however falsely reported, oh, then he would glory,
laugh and be glad, and lay it upon the whole party. Hang these rogues,
he would say, there is not a barrel better herring in all the holy
brotherhood of them. Like to like, quoth the Devil to the collier.
This is your precise crew, and then he would send them all home with a
curse.'

Thus Bunyan developed his specimen scoundrel, till he brought him to
the high altitudes of worldly prosperity; skilful in every villanous
art, skilful equally in keeping out of the law's hands, and feared,
admired and respected by all his neighbours. The reader who desires to
see Providence vindicated would now expect to find him detected in
some crimes by which justice could lay hold, and poetical retribution
fall upon him in the midst of his triumph. An inferior artist would
certainly have allowed his story to end in this way. But Bunyan,
satisfied though he was that dramatic judgments did overtake offenders
in this world with direct and startling appropriateness, was yet aware
that it was often otherwise, and that the worst fate which could be
inflicted on a completely worthless person was to allow him to work
out his career unvisited by any penalties which might have disturbed
his conscience and occasioned his amendment. He chose to make his
story natural, and to confine himself to natural machinery. The
judgment to come Mr. Badman laughed at 'as old woman's fable,' but his
courage lasted only as long as he was well and strong. One