on, so that they were
enabled just to get in at the gateway; but as soon as health and
spirits returned, the way grew narrower and narrower to them; they
could not get on, but turned short, and got back into the world.

I saw many attempt to enter who were stopped short by a large burden
of worldly cares; others by a load of idolatrous attachments; but I
observed that nothing proved a more complete bar than that vast bundle
of prejudices with which multitudes were loaded. Others were fatally
obstructed by loads of bad habits which they would not lay down,
though they knew they prevented their entrance. Some few, however, of
most descriptions who had kept their light alive by craving constant
supplies from the King's treasury, got through at last by a strength
which they felt not to be their own.

One poor man, who carried the largest bundle of bad habits I had seen,
could not get on a step; he never ceased, however, to implore for
light enough to see where his misery lay: he threw down one of his
bundles, then another, but all to little purpose, still he could not
stir. At last, striving as if in agony--which is the true way of
entering--he threw down the heaviest article in his pack: this was
selfishness. The poor fellow felt relieved at once, his light burned
brightly, and the rest of his pack was as nothing.

Then I heard a great noise as of carpenters at work. I looked to see
what this might be, and saw many sturdy travellers, who, finding they
were too bulky to get through, took into their heads not to reduce
themselves, but to widen the gate: they hacked on this side, and hewed
on that; but all their hacking and hewing and hammering was to no
purpose, they got only their labor for their pains: it would have been
possible for them to have reduced themselves, but to widen the
Narrow-way was impossible.

What grieved me most was, to observe that many who had got on
successfully a good way, now stopped to rest, and to admire their own
progress. While they were thus valuing themselves on their attainment,
their light diminished. While these were boasting how far they had left
others behind, who had set out much earlier, some slower travellers,
whose beginning had not been so promising but who had walked
circumspectly, now outstripped them. These last walked, "not as though
they had already attained," but "this one thing they did, forgetting the
things which were behind, they pressed forward towards the mark for the