their pockets and pushed through the booths
in the hope of getting out at the upper gate before any one had time to
speak to them. But that was not possible, for they were soon set upon by
the men of the fair, who cried after them: 'Hail, strangers, look here,
what will you buy?' 'We buy the truth only,' said Faithful, 'and we do
not see any of that article of merchandise set out on any of your
stalls.' And from that began a hubbub that ended in a riot, and the riot
in the apprehension and shutting up in a public cage of the two innocent
pilgrims. Lord Hate-good was the judge on the bench of Vanity in the day
of their trial, and the three witnesses who appeared in the witness-box
against the two prisoners were Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank. The
twelve jurymen who sat on their case were Mr. Blindman, Mr. No-good, Mr.
Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High-mind, Mr.
Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate-light, and Mr. Implacable,--Mr.
Blindman to be the foreman. And it was before these men that Faithful
was brought forth to his trial in order to his condemnation. And very
soon after his trial Faithful came to his end. 'Now I saw that there
stood behind the multitude a chariot and a couple of horses waiting for
Faithful, who (so soon as his adversaries had despatched him) was taken
up into it, and straightway was carried up through the clouds, with sound
of trumpet, the nearest way to the Celestial gate.'

Now, I cannot tell you how it was, I cannot account for it to myself, but
it is nevertheless absolutely true that as I was reading my author last
week and was meditating my present exposition, it came somehow into my
mind, and I could not get it out of my mind, that there is a great and a
close similarity between John Bunyan's Vanity Fair and a general
election. And, all I could do to keep the whole thing out of my mind,
one similarity after another would leap up into my mind and would not be
put out of it. I protest that I did not go out to seek for such
similarities, but the more I frowned on them the thicker they came. And
then the further question arose as to whether I should write them down or
no; and then much more, as to whether I should set them out before my
people or no. As you will easily believe, I was immediately in a real
strait as to what I should do. I saw on the one side what would be sure
to be said by ill-natured people and people of a hasty judgment. And I
saw wi