THE

AUTHOR'S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK.

 
   
 

2,
ay | HEN at the first I took my pen in hand
oF H Thus for to write, I did not understand
a % That I at all should make a little book
2 § In such a mode; nay, I had undertook
To make another; which when almost done,
Before I was aware, I this begun.
And thus it was: I, writing of the way
And race of saints, in this our Gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory
About their journey, and the way to glory,
In more than twenty things which I set down :
This done, I twenty more had in my crown ;
And they again began to multiply,
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay, then, thought I, if that you breed so fast,
Pll put you by, yourselves, lest you at last
Should prove ad infinitum, and eat out
The book that I already am about.
Well, so I did; but yet I did not think
To show to all the world my pen and ink
In such a mode; I only thought to make
I knew not what: nor did I undertake
Thereby to please my neighbor: no, not I ;
I did it my own self to gratify.
Neither did I but vacant seasons spend
In this my seribble; nor did I intend
But to divert myself in doing this
From worser thoughts which make me do amiss,
Thus I set pen to paper with delight,
And quickly had my thoughts in black and white ;
For, having now my method by the end,
Still as I pulled, it came; and so I penned
It down; until it came at last to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
Well, when I thus had put mine ends together,
I showed them others, that I might see whether
They would condemn them or them justify :

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