t-for-Truth's song, later
on, the Shakesperian ring of which recalls Amiens' in "As You Like It,"

"Under the greenwood tree,
Who loves to lie with me. . .
Come hither, come hither,"

and has led some to question whether it can be Bunyan's own. The
resemblance, as Mr. Froude remarks, is "too near to be accidental."
"Perhaps he may have heard the lines, and the rhymes may have clung to
him without his knowing whence they came."

"Who would true Valour see,
Let him come hither,
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather.
There's no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a Pilgrim.

Who so beset him round
With dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound
His strength the more is.
No lion can him fright,
He'll with a giant fight,
But he will have a right
To be a Pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
Can daunt his spirit,
He knows he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a Pilgrim."

All readers of "The Pilgrim's Progress" and "The Holy War" are familiar
with the long metrical compositions giving the history of these works by
which they are prefaced and the latter work is closed. No more
characteristic examples of Bunyan's muse can be found. They show his
excellent command of his native tongue in racy vernacular, homely but
never vulgar, and his power of expressing his meaning "with sharp defined
outlines and without the waste of a word."

Take this account of his perplexity, when the First Part of his
"Pilgrim's Progress" was finished, whether it should be given to the
world or no, and the characteristic decision with which he settled the
question for himself:--

"Well, when I had then put mine ends together,
I show'd them others that I might see whether
They would condemn them, or them justify;
And some said Let them live; some, Let them die.
Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so;
Some said it might do good; others said No.
Now was I in a strait, and did not see
Which was the best thing to be done by me;
At last I thought since you are thus divided
I print it will; and so the case decided;"

or the lines in which he introduces the Second Part of the Pilgrim to the
readers of the former part:--

"Go now, my little Book, to every place
Where my first Pilgrim