e was on the
right hand a deep ditch; that ditch to which the blind have led the
blind as long as the world has been made. And, lo, on the left hand
there was a quag. in which if a man fall, he will find no firm ground
for his foot to stand on. The path way was not broad, and so good
Christian was the more put to it. This went on for miles, and in the
midst of that vale was a deep pit. One thing which I saw in my dream
I must not leave out; it was this:--Just as Christian had come to the
mouth of the pit, one of those who dwelt in it swept up to him, and in
a soft tone spoke bad things to him, and took God's name in vain, which
Christian thought must have come from his own mind. This put him out
more than all the rest had done; to think that he should take that name
in vain for which he felt so deep a love, was a great grief to him. Yet
there was no help for it. Then he thought he heard a voice which said:
Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no
harm for thou art with me.

Now as Christian went on, he found there was a rise in the road, which
had been thrown up that that path might be clear to those who were bound
for Zion. Up this road Christian went, and saw his old friend Faithful a
short way off.

Then said Christian: Ha, my friend, are you here? Stay, and I will join
you.

This ere long he did, and they spoke of all that had come to pass since
they had last met.

In course of time the road they took brought them to a town, the name of
which is Vanity, where there is a fair kept through the whole year, and
all that is bought or sold there is vain and void of worth. There,
too, are to be seen at all times games, plays, fools, apes, knaves,
and rogues. Yet he that will go to The Celestial City must needs pass
through this fair.

As soon as Christian and Faithful came to the town, a crowd drew round
them, and some said they had lost their wits, to dress and speak as they
did, and to set no store by the choice goods for sale in Vanity Fair.
When Christian spoke, his words brought from these folks fierce taunts
and jeers, and soon the noise and stir grew to such a height that the
chief man of the fair sent his friends to take up these two strange men,
and he bade them tell him whence they came, and what they did there in
such a garb. Christian and Faithful told them all; but those who sat to
judge the case thought that they must be mad, or else that they had come
to stir up strife a