ELIZABETH BUN1AN, wilderness, to the Black River and the Shining Gate. He had found out, as most people would have said, by accident, as he would, doubtless, have said, by the guidance of Providence, where his powers lay. He had no suspicion, indeed, that he was producing a master-piece. . . . It was only, he assures us, at spare moments that he re- turned to the House Beautiful, the Delectable Mountains, and the Enchanted Ground. He had no assistance. Nobody but himself saw a line till the whole was complete. He then consulted his pious friends. Some were pleased, others were much scandalized. It was a vain story, a mere romance, about giants, and lions, and goblins, and warriors, sometimes fighting with monsters, and sometimes regaled by fair ladies in stately palaces." A general feeling of disapprobation pervaded the rank of his Puritan brethren ; but " he saw that in employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, he was only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself, and he determined to print." Whether the affectionate Elizabeth was in any degree capable of appreciating the magnificent talents of her husband, or to assist him in any way with her advice in the momentous question of publishing, it is impossible to guess. That she re- verenced and admired him is very certain, but there is nothing on record to show in what light she regarded his literary outpourings. With joy, how- ever, she was enabled, after a weary space of twelve 34
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=