Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 -- Criticism and interpretation
spot, for the pound which he keeps out of sight; he dazzles our eyes with
the gain of the hundred till we gnash our teeth at the loss of the shire.
'He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief,
Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not,
Despoils himself for ever of THAT LOVE.'
3. 'What also if we join with those two another two of ours, Mr. Sweet-
world and Mr. Present-good, namely, for they are two men full of civility
and cunning. Let these engage in this business for us, and let Mansoul
be taken up with much business, and if possible with much pleasure, and
this is the way to get ground of them. Let us but cumber and occupy and
amuse Mansoul sufficiently, and they will make their castle a warehouse
for goods instead of a garrison for men of war.' This diabolical advice
was highly applauded all through hell till all the lesser devils, while
setting themselves to carry it out, gnashed their teeth with envy and
malice at Lucifer for having thought of this masterpiece and for having
had it received with such loud acclamation. 'Only get them,' so went on
that so able, so well-envied, and so well-hated devil, 'let us only get
those fribble sinners for a night at a time to forget their misery. And
it will not cost us much to do that. Only let us offer them in one
another's houses a supper, a dance, a pipe, a newspaper full of their own
shame, a tale full of their own folly, a silly song, and He who loved
them with an everlasting love will soon see of the travail of His soul in
them!' Yes, my fellow-sinners, Lucifer and his infernal crew know us and
despise us and entrap us at very little trouble, till He who travailed
for us on the tree covers His face in heaven and weeps over us. As long
as we remember our misery, all the mind, and all the malice, and all the
sleeplessness in hell cannot touch a hair of our head. But when by any
emissary and opportunity either from earth around us or from hell beneath
us we for another night forget our misery, it is all over with us. And
yet, to tell the truth, we never can quite forget our misery. We are too
miserable ever to forget our misery. In the full steam of Lucifer's best-
spread supper, amid the shouts of laughter and the clapping of hands, and
all the outward appearance of a complete forgetfulness of our misery, yet
it is not so. It is far from being so. Our misery is far too
deep-seated for all the devil's drugs. Only, to give Lucifer his due, we
do sometimes, under him, so get out of touch with the true consolation
for our misery that, night after night, through cumber, through pursuit
of pleasure, through the time being taken up with these and other like
things, we do so far forget our misery as to lie down without dealing
with it; but only to have it awaken us, and take our arm as its own for
another miserable day. Yes; though never completely successful, yet this
masterpiece of hell is sufficiently successful for Satan's subtlest
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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