ll its
doleful sights and sounds; then through the wicked city of Vanity
Fair; then through the gloomy domains of Doubting Castle and Giant
Despair,--all before he could hope to set foot on these Delectable
Mountains of Emanuel's land.

"Now, do you not see, my dear children, that not altogether unlike
good Christian's case, at this stage of his journey, is that of our
own at this point of our story? But a little while ago we were
trudging along, sometimes heavily, sometimes swimmingly, till by and
by we reached the bottom of our Hill Difficulty; by which, of course,
you understand me to mean the causes that brought about our
Revolutionary War. And here, had we gone to the right or the left, we
should most assuredly have wandered into a wilderness of romance and
Brobdignagian wonders, among whose mazes we would have become
entangled beyond all reasonable hope of escape. But our eyes were
opened to our danger; and like good Christian, by whose example we
might profit oftener than we do, we knew in what direction lay our
best interest, and were not to be enticed astray by the prospect of
ease or novelty, nor turned back by flinty facts and rough realities.
So straightway up the difficult hill we marched, lofty and steep as it
was; and hardly left a stone unturned till we had scrambled to the
top. This gained, we have felt it our privilege to halt and rest a
while, and refresh ourselves with a little pleasing and edifying
discourse, one with another, touching what we have seen or heard in
the course of our journey.

"We have thus surmounted the most tedious and difficult part of our
story. But still there lies before us many a hard-fought battle, many
an irksome siege, many a forlorn retreat, many a gloomy winter-camp,
and many a season of doubt and discouragement, privation and dire
calamity, through which we must pass before we can hope to set our
weary feet on the Delectable Mountains of Freemen's Land, smiling
invitingly beyond. But to reward you for the diligent attention with
which you have followed me thus far, as well as to entice you to
trudge on to the end, I will, from this elevated point, unfold to your
view a glimpse of this glorious region, ere 'the war-clouds rolling
dun' from the plains of Lexington and the heights of Bunker's Hill
have too much obscured our morning sky.

"See yon land of shining mountains,
Stately forests, verdant dells,
Sun-bright rivers, sparkling fountains,
Hea