But I am
inclined to think that, in spite of the map and road-book, and the
King's word, and his offers of assistance to get them thither, that
the travelers in general did not heartily and truly believe, after
all, that there was any such country as the _Happy Land_; or at
least the paltry and transient pleasures of the wilderness so
besotted them, the thoughts of the dark and shadowy valley so
frightened them, that they thought they should be more comfortable
by banishing all thought and forecast, and driving the subject quite
out of their heads.

Now, I also saw in my dream, that there were two roads through the
wilderness, one of which every traveler must needs take. The first
was narrow, and difficult, and rough, but it was infallibly safe. It
did not admit the traveler to stray either to the right hand or the
left, yet it was far from being destitute of real comforts or sober
pleasures. The other was a _broad_ and _tempting way_, abounding
with luxurious fruits and gaudy flowers, to tempt the eye and please
the appetite. To forget this _dark valley_, through which every
traveler was well assured he must one day pass, seemed the object of
general desire. To this grand end, all that human ingenuity could
invent was industriously set to work. The travelers read, and they
wrote, and they painted, and they sung, and they danced, and they
drank as they went along, not so much because they all cared for
these things, or had any real joy in them, as because this restless
activity served to divert their attention from ever being fixed on
the _dark and shadowy valley_.

The King, who knew the thoughtless tempers of the travelers, and
how apt they were to forget their journey's end, had thought of a
thousand kind little attentions to warn them of their dangers: and
as we sometimes see in our gardens written on a board in great
letters, BEWARE OF SPRING GUNS--MAN TRAPS ARE SET HERE; So had this
king caused to be written and stuck up before the eyes of the
travelers, several little notices and cautions; such as, "Broad is
the way that leadeth to destruction."--"Take heed, lest you also
perish." "Woe to them that rise up early to drink wine." "The
pleasures of sin are but for a season," etc. Such were the notices
directed to the _broad-way_ travelers; but they were so busily
engaged in plucking the flowers sometimes before they were blown,
and in devouring the fruits often before they were ripe, and in
loading themselves wi