ertaining. Intensely religious as it is in
purpose, "The Pilgrim's Progress" may be safely styled the first English
novel. "The claim to be the father of English romance," writes Dr.
Allon, "which has been sometimes preferred for Defoe, really pertains to
Bunyan. Defoe may claim the parentage of a species, but Bunyan is the
creator of the genus." As the parent of fictitious biography it is that
Bunyan has charmed the world. On its vivid interest as a story, its
universal interest and lasting vitality rest. "Other allegorises,"
writes Lord Macaulay, "have shown great ingenuity, but no other
allegorist has ever been able to touch the heart, and to make its
abstractions objects of terror, of pity, and of love." Whatever its
deficiencies, literary and religious, may be; if we find incongruities in
the narrative, and are not insensible to some grave theological
deficiencies; if we are unable without qualification to accept
Coleridge's dictum that it is "incomparably the best 'Summa Theologiae
Evangelicae' ever produced by a writer not miraculously inspired;" even
if, with Hallam, we consider its "excellencies great indeed, but not of
the highest order," and deem it "a little over-praised," the fact of its
universal popularity with readers of all classes and of all orders of
intellect remains, and gives this book a unique distinction. "I have,"
says Dr. Arnold, when reading it after a long interval, "always been
struck by its piety. I am now struck equally or even more by its
profound wisdom. It seems to be a complete reflexion of Scripture." And
to turn to a critic of very different character, Dean Swift: "I have been
better entertained and more improved," writes that cynical pessimist, "by
a few pages of this book than by a long discourse on the will and
intellect." The favourite of our childhood, as "the most perfect and
complex of fairy tales, so human and intelligible," read, as Hallam says,
"at an age when the spiritual meaning is either little perceived or
little regarded," the "Pilgrim's Progress" becomes the chosen companion
of our later years, perused with ever fresh appreciation of its teaching,
and enjoyment of its native genius; "the interpreter of life to all who
are perplexed with its problems, and the practical guide and solace of
all who need counsel and sympathy."

The secret of this universal acceptableness of "The Pilgrim's Progress"
lies in the breadth of its religious sympathies. Rigid Purita