The Pilgrim's Progress

And as he was troubled thereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall on the left hand of the narrow way, and they made up a pace to him. The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of the other, Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus entered with them into discourse. Gentlemen, whence came you, and whither go you? We were born in the land of vain glory, and are going for praise to Mount Zion. Why came you not in at the gate, which standeth at the beginning of the way? Know you not that it is written, that he that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber? To go to the gate, for entrance was, by all our countrymen, counted too far about. And that therefore our usual way is to make a short cut of it, and climb over the wall, as we have done. But will it not be counted a trespass against the lord of the city, whither we are bound, thus to violate his revealed will? As for that, trouble not thy head thereabout. For what we did, we have custom for, and could produce, if need were, testimony which would witness it for more than a thousand years. But will your practice stand a trial at law? Our custom, being of so long a standing as above a thousand years, will doubtless now be admitted as a thing legal by any impartial judge. And besides, if we get into the way, what matters which way we get in? If we are in, we are in. Thou art but in the way who, as we perceive, came in at the gate. And we are also in the way, and by tumbling over the wall. Wherein now is thy condition better than ours? I walk by the rule of my master. You walk by the rude working of your fancies. You are counted thieves already by the lord of the way. Therefore I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way. You come in by yourselves, without his direction. And so go out by yourselves, without his mercy. To this they made him but little answer. Only they bid him look to himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way, without much conference one with another. Say that these two men told Christian, As to laws and ordinances, we doubt not, but we should as conscientiously do them as thou. Therefore we see not wherein thou differest from us, But by the coat that is on thy back. Which was, as we trow, given thee by some of thy neighbors, to hide the shame of thy nakedness. By laws and ordinances you will not be saved, since you came not in at the door. And as for this coat that is on my back, it was given me by the lord of the place whither I go. And that, as you say, to cover my nakedness with. And I take it as a token of his kindness to me, for I had nothing but rags before. And besides, thus I comfort myself as I go. Surely, think I, when I come to the gate of the city, The lord thereof will know me for good, since I have this coat on my back. A coat that he gave me freely in the day that he stripped me of my rags. I have moreover a mark in my forehead, of which perhaps you have taken no notice. Which one of my lord's most intimate associates fixed there in the day that my burden fell off my shoulders. I will tell you moreover that I had then given me a roll, sealed, to comfort me by reading as I go on the way. I was also bid to give it in at the celestial gate, in token of my certain going in after it. All of which things I doubt you want, and want them because you came not in at the gate. To these things they gave him no answer. Only they looked upon each other and laughed. Then I saw that they went on all, save that Christian kept before, Who had no more talk but with himself, and that sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably. Also he would be often reading in the roll that one of the shining ones gave him, by which he was refreshed. I beheld then that they all went on till they came to the foot of the hill difficulty, At the bottom of which was a spring. There were also in the same place two other ways besides that which came straight from the gate. One turned to the left hand, and the other to the right at the bottom of the hill. But the narrow way lay right up the hill, and the name of the going up the side of the hill is called difficulty. Christian now went to the spring, and drank thereof to refresh himself, And then began to go up the hill, saying, The hill though high I covet to ascend, the difficulty will not me offend, For I perceive the way to life lies here. Come pluck up heart, let's neither faint nor fear, Better though difficult the right way to go, than wrong though easy where the end is woe. The other two also came to the foot of the hill. But when they saw that the hill was steep and high, and that there were two other ways to go, And supposing also that these two ways might meet again with that of which Christian went on the other side of the hill, Therefore they were resolved to go in those ways. Now the name of one of these ways was danger, and the name of the other, destruction. So the one took the way which is called danger, which led him into a great wood, And the other took directly up the way to destruction, Which led him into a wide field full of dark mountains, Where he stumbled and fell, and rose no more.