Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 -- Criticism and interpretation
There was not so much word of heredity in his day; but without so much of
the word young Think-well had the whole of the thing. And as time went
on, and the child became more and more the father of the man, it was seen
and spoken of by all the neighbours who knew the house, how that their
only child had inherited all his father's head, and all his mother's
heart, and then that he had reverted to his maternal grandfather in his
so keen and quick sense of right and wrong. All which, under whatever
name it was held, was a most excellent outfit for our young gentleman.
His old father, good natural head and all, had next to no book-learning.
He had only two or three books that he read a hundred times over till he
had them by heart. And as he sighed over his unlettered lot he always
consoled himself with a saying he had once got out of one of his old
books. The saying of some great authority was to this effect, that 'an
old and simple woman, if she loves Jesus, may be greater than our great
brother Bonaventure.' He did not know who Bonaventure was, but he always
got a reproof again out of his name. Think-well, to his father's immense
delight, was a very methodical little fellow, and his father and he had
orderly little secrets that they told to none. Little secret plans as to
what they were to read about, and think about, and pray about on certain
days of the week and at certain hours of the day and the night. You must
not call the father an old pedant, for the fact is, it was the son who
was the pedant if there was one in that happy house. The two intimate
friends had a word between them they called _agenda_. And nobody but
themselves knew where they had borrowed that uncouth word, what language
it was, or what it meant. Only in the old man's tattered pocket-book
there were things like this found by his minister after his death.
Indeed, in a museum of such relics this is still to be read under a glass
case, and in old Mr. Meditation's ramshackle hand: 'Monday, death;
Tuesday, judgment; Wednesday, heaven; Thursday, hell; Friday, my past
life back to my youth; Saturday, the passion of my Saviour; Lord's day,
creation, salvation, and my own.--M.' And then, on an utterly illegible
page, this: 'Jesus, Thy life and Thy words are a perpetual sermon to me.
I meditate on Thee all the day. Make my memory a vessel of election. Let
all my thoughts be plain, honest, pious, simple, prudent, and charitable,
till Thou art pleased to draw the curtain and let me see Thyself, O
Eternal Jesu!' If I had time I could tell you more about Think-well's
quaint old father. But the above may be better than nothing about the
rare old gentleman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account