Dr. Brown says: "It is found in _Northern Europe_--in Danish, Icelandic,
Norwegian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Lettish, Esthonian, and Russ; in
_Eastern Europe_--in Servian, Bulgarian, Bohemian, Hungarian, and
Polish; and in _Southern Europe_--in French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, and Romaic, or modern Greek. In _Asia_, it may be met with
in Hebrew, Arabic, Modern Syriac, Armeno-Turkish, Græco-Turkish, and
Armenian. Farther to the south, also, it is seen in Pashtu, or Afghani,
and in the great Empire of India it is found in various forms.
"It has been translated into Hindustani or Urdu, Bengali, Uriya or
Orissa, Hindi, Sindhi, Panjabi or Sikh, Telugu, Canarese, Tamil,
Malayaline, Marathi-Balbodh, Gujarati, and Singhalese.
"In Indo-Chinese countries there are versions of it in Assamese, Khasi,
Burmese, and Sgau-Karen. It has been given to the Dyaks of Borneo, to
the Malays, to the Malagasy, to the Japanese, and to the many-millioned
people of China, in various dialects, both classical and colloquial."
It has also been translated into the languages of Western Africa, the
Pacific Islands, the Mexicans, and various tribes of Indians.
The greatest minds of the world have been unanimous in its praise.
Everybody agrees with Toplady, who wrote "Rock of Ages," that "it is the
finest allegorical work extant."
Macaulay said, "Bunyan is the first of allegorists, as Shakespeare is
the first of dramatists," and recommended the study of his simple style
to any who wished to gain command over his mother tongue.
Coleridge said, "I know of no book, the Bible excepted as above all
comparison, which I, according to my judgment and experience, could so
safely recommend, as teaching and enforcing the whole saving truth,
according to the mind that was in Christ Jesus, as 'The Pilgrim's
Progress.'"
Fronde well says it has made Bunyan's "name a household word in every
English-speaking family on the globe." Hallam calls his style "powerful
and picturesque from concise simplicity." Green, the historian, thinks
"Bunyan's English the simplest and homeliest English that has ever been
used by any great English writer.... It is the English of the Bible."
The second part of "Pilgrim's Progress" was published seven years after
the first, in 1685. In 1680 appeared the "Life and Death of Mr. Badman,"
a contrast to the good Pilgrim; in 1681, "Come and Welcome to Jesus
Christ," which went through several editions; and in 1682, the "Holy
War," which, Macaulay says, would have been our greatest allegory if
"Pilgrim's Progress" had never been written. It represents the fall and
recovery of man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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