onception of
the story, and has successfully shown that the tinker of Elstow could
not have profited by one or two allegories in the French and Flemish
languages--works which he could have had hardly a chance to meet with;
which, if thrown in his way, he could not have read; and, finally,
which, if he had read them, could scarcely have supplied him with a
single hint. Mr. Southey, however, has not mentioned a work in
English, of Bunyan's own time, and from which, certainly, the general
notion of his allegory might have been taken. The work we allude to is
now before us, entitled, 'The Parable of the Pilgrim, written to a
friend by Symon Patrick, D.D., Dean of Peterborough;' the same learned
person, well known by his theological writings, and successively
Bishop of Chichester and Ely. This worthy man's inscription is dated
the 14th of December, 1672; and Mr. Southey's widest conjecture will
hardly allow an earlier date for Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 1672
being the very year in which he was enlarged from prison. The language
of Dr. Patrick, in addressing his friend, excludes the possibility of
his having borrowed from John Bunyan's celebrated work. He apologizes
for sending to his acquaintance one in the old fashioned dress of a
pilgrim; and says he found among the works of a late writer, Baker's
Sancta Sophia, a short discourse, under the name of a Parable of a
Pilgrim; 'which was so agreeable to the portion of fancy he was
endowed with, that he presently thought that a work of this nature
would be very grateful to his friends also. It appears that the
Parable of a Pilgrim, so sketched by Dr. Patrick, remained for some
years in the possession of the private friend for whom it was drawn
up, until, it being supposed by others that the work might be of
general utility, it was at length published in 1678.--Before that year
the first edition of the Pilgrim's Progress had unquestionably made
its appearance; but we equally acquit the Dean of Peterborough and the
tinker of Elstow from copying a thought or idea from each other. If
Dr. Patrick had seen the Pilgrim's Progress he would, probably, in the
pride of academic learning, have scorned to adopt it as a model; but,
at all events, as a man of worth, he would never have denied the
obligation if he had incurred one. John Bunyan, on his part, would in
all likelihood have scorned, 'with his very heels,' to borrow anything
from a dean; and we are satisfied that he would have cut h