ime-server, Mr. Facingbothways, Mr. Anything, and the Parson of the
Parish, his mother's own brother by the father's side, Mr. Twotongues.
Nor is his schoolmaster, one Mr. Gripeman, of the market town of
Lovegain, in the county of Coveting, a stranger to us. Obstinate, with
his dogged determination and stubborn common-sense, and Pliable with his
shallow impressionableness, are among our acquaintances. We have, before
now, come across "the brisk lad Ignorance from the town of Conceit," and
have made acquaintance with Mercy's would-be suitor, Mr. Brisk, "a man of
some breeding and that pretended to religion, but who stuck very close to
the world." The man Temporary who lived in a town two miles off from
Honesty, and next door to Mr. Turnback; Formalist and Hypocrisy, who were
"from the land of Vainglory, and were going for praise to Mount Sion";
Simple, Sloth, and Presumption, "fast asleep by the roadside with fetters
on their heels," and their companions, Shortwind, Noheart,
Lingerafterlust, and Sleepyhead, we know them all. "The young woman
whose name was Dull" taxes our patience every day. Where is the town
which does not contain Mrs. Timorous and her coterie of gossips, Mrs.
Bats-eyes, Mrs. Inconsiderate, Mrs. Lightmind, and Mrs. Knownothing, "all
as merry as the maids," with that pretty fellow Mr. Lechery at the house
of Madam Wanton, that "admirably well-bred gentlewoman"? Where shall we
find more lifelike portraits than those of Madam Bubble, a "tall, comely
dame, somewhat of a swarthy complexion, speaking very smoothly with a
smile at the end of each sentence, wearing a great purse by her side,
with her hand often in it, fingering her money as if that was her chief
delight;" of poor Feeblemind of the town of Uncertain, with his "whitely
look, the cast in his eye, and his trembling speech;" of Littlefaith, as
"white as a clout," neither able to fight nor fly when the thieves from
Dead Man's Lane were on him; of Ready-to-halt, at first coming along on
his crutches, and then when Giant Despair had been slain and Doubting
Castle demolished, taking Despondency's daughter Much-afraid by the hand
and dancing with her in the road? "True, he could not dance without one
crutch in his hand, but I promise you he footed it well. Also the girl
was to be commanded, for she answered the musick handsomely." In
Bunyan's pictures there is never a superfluous detail. Every stroke
tells, and helps to the completeness of the por