and seemed to look back with
disdain on all that he was quitting. He soon found, however, that he
was so bloated with pride, and stuffed out with self-sufficiency,
that he could not get in. Nay, he was in a worse way than the rich
man just named; for _he_ had been willing to throw away some of his
outward luggage, whereas this man refused to part with a grain of
that vanity and self-applause which made him too large for the way.
The sense of his own worth so swelled him out that he stuck fast in
the gateway, and could neither get in nor out. Finding now that he
must cut off all these big thoughts of himself, if he wished to be
reduced to such a size as to pass the gate, he gave up all thoughts
of it. He scorned that humility and self-denial which might have
shrunk him down to the proper dimensions; the more he insisted on
his own qualifications for entrance, the more impossible it became
to enter, for the bigger he grew. Finding that he must become quite
another manner of man before he could hope to get in, he gave up the
desire; and I now saw that though when he set his face toward the
_Happy Land_ he could not get an inch forward, yet the instant he
made a motion to turn back into the world, his speed became rapid
enough, and he got back into the _Broad Way_ much sooner than he got
out of it.

Many, who for a time were brought down from their usual bulk by some
affliction, seemed to get in with ease. They now thought all their
difficulties over, for having been surfeited with the world during
their late disappointment, they turned their backs upon it
willingly enough, and fancied they were tired of it. A fit of
sickness, perhaps, which is very apt to _reduce_, had for a time
brought their bodies into subjection, so that they were enabled just
to get in at the gateway; but as soon as health and spirit returned,
the way grew narrower and narrower to them; and they could not get
on, but turned short, and got back into the world. I saw many
attempt to enter who were stopped short by a large burden of
_worldly cares_; others by a load of _idolatrous attachments_; but I
observed that nothing proved a more complete bar than that vast
_bundle of prejudices_ with which multitudes were loaded. Others
were fatally obstructed by loads of _bad habits_, which they would
not lay down, though they knew it prevented their entrance.

Some few, however, of most descriptions, who had kept their _light_
alive by craving constant suppli