by the way; but
this I have resolved on, to wit, to run when I can, to go when I cannot
run, and to creep when I cannot go. As to the main, I thank Him that
loves me, I am fixed. My way is before me, my mind is beyond the river
that has no bridge, though I am, as you see, but of a feeble mind."

Then said old Mr. Honest, "Have you not some time ago been acquainted
with one Mr. Fearing, a pilgrim?" "Acquainted with him! yes. He came
from the town of Stupidity, which lies four degrees to the northward of
the City of Destruction, and as many off where I was born. Yet we were
well acquainted; for, indeed, he was mine uncle, my father's brother. He
and I have been much of a temper; he was a little shorter than I, but yet
we were much of a complexion." "I perceive that you know him," said Mr.
Honest, "and I am apt to believe also that you were related one to
another; for you have his whitely look, a cast like his with your eye,
and your speech is much alike."

"Alas!" Feeble-mind went on, "I want a suitable companion. You are all
lusty and strong, but I, as you see, am weak. I choose therefore rather
to come behind, lest, by reason of my many infirmities, I should be both
a burden to myself and to you. I am, as I said, a man of a weak and
feeble mind, and shall be offended and made weak at that which others can
bear. I shall like no laughing; I shall like no gay attire; I shall like
no unprofitable questions. Nay, I am so weak a man as to be offended
with what others have a liberty to do. I do not yet know all the truth.
I am a very ignorant Christian man. Sometimes, if I hear some rejoice in
the Lord, it troubles me because I cannot do so too. It is with me as
with a weak man among the strong, or as with a sickly man among the
healthy, or as a lamp despised." "But, brother," said Greatheart, "I
have it in commission to comfort the feeble-minded and to support the
weak." Thus therefore, they went on--Mr. Greatheart and Mr. Honest went
before; Christiana and her children went next; and Mr. Feeble-mind and
Mr. Ready-to-halt came behind with his crutches.

1. In the first place, a single word as to Feeble-mind's family tree.

Thackeray says that _The Peerage_ is the Family Bible of every true-born
Englishman. Every genuine Englishman, he tells us, teaches that sacred
book diligently to his children. He talks out of it to them when he sits
in the house and when he walks by the way. He binds it upon his
ch