some men who had lost their lives by a fall from the top; men who had
been made to err, for they had put their trust in false guides.
Have you not heard of them? said the men.
Christian.--Yes, I have.
Men.--These are they, and to this day they have not been put in a tomb,
but are left here to warn men to take good heed how they come too near
the brink of this hill.
Then I saw that they had led them to the top of Mount Caution, and bade
them look far off. From that stile, said they, there goes a path to
Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, and the men whom you
see there came as you do now, till they got up to that stile; and, as
the right way was rough to walk in, they chose to go through a field,
and there Giant Despair took them, and shut them up in Doubting Castle,
where they were kept in a den for a while, till he at last sent them out
quite blind, and there they are still. At this Christian gave a look at
Hopeful, and they both burst out with sobs and tears, but yet said not a
word.
Then the four men took them up a high hill, the name of which was Clear,
that they might see the gates of The Celestial City, with the aid of
a glass to look through, but their hands shook, so they could not see
well.
When Christian and Hopeful thought they would move on, one of the men
gave them a note of the way, and the next (Experience by name) bade them
take heed that they slept not on The Enchanted Ground, and the fourth
bade them God Speed. Now it was that I woke from my dream.
Then I slept, and dreamt once more, and saw Christian and Hopeful go
down near the foot of these hills, where lies the land of Conceit, which
joins the way to Mount Zion, by a small lane. Here they met a brisk lad,
whose name was Ignorance, to whom Christian said: Whence come you, and
to what place do you go?
Ignorance.--Sir, I was born in the land that lies off there on the left,
and I wish to go to The Celestial City.
Christian.--How do you think to get in at the gate?
Ignorance.--Just as the rest of the world do.
Christian.--But what have you to show at that gate to pass you through
it?
Ignorance.--I know my Lord's will, and I have led a good life; I pay for
all that I have, I give tithes, and give alms, and have left my own land
for that to which I now go.
Christian.--But you came not in at the gate that is at the head of this
way, you came in through a small lane; so that I fear, though you may
think well of al
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