these travellers entered it weeping and crying, and left it in a
very great pain and anguish. This vast valley was full of people of
all colors, ages, sizes, and descriptions; but whether white, or
black, or tawney, all were travelling the same road, or rather, they
were taking different little paths which all led to the same common
end.

Now it was remarkable, that notwithstanding the different complexions,
ages, and tempers of this vast variety of people, yet all resembled
each other in this one respect, that each had a burden on his back,
which he was destined to carry through the toil and heat of the day,
until he should arrive, by a longer or shorter course, at his
journey's end. These burdens would in general have made the pilgrimage
quite intolerable, had not the Lord of the valley, out of his great
compassion for these poor pilgrims, provided, among other things, the
following means for their relief.

In their full view, over the entrance of the valley, there were
written in great letters the following words:

BEAR YE ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS.

Now I saw in my vision, that many of the travellers hurried on without
stopping to read this inscription; and others, though they had once
read it, yet paid little or no attention to it. A third sort thought
it good advice for other people, but very seldom applied it to
themselves. In short, I saw that too many of these people were of the
opinion, that they had burdens enough of their own, and that there
was therefore no occasion to take upon them those of others; so each
tried to make his own load as light, and his own journey as pleasant
as he could, without so much as once casting a thought on a poor
overloaded neighbor.

Here, however, I have to make a rather singular remark, by which
I shall plainly show the folly of these selfish people. It was so
ordered and contrived by the Lord of this valley, that if any one
stretched out his hand to lighten a neighbor's burden, in fact he
never failed to find that he at that moment also lightened his own.
Besides, the obligation to help each other, and the benefit of doing
so, were mutual. If a man helped his neighbor, it commonly happened
that some other neighbor came, by and by, and helped him in his turn;
for there was no such thing as what we call _independence_ in the
whole valley. Not one of all these travellers, however stout and
strong, could move on comfortably without assistance; for so the Lord
of the valle