_In working out the details of_ ‘_The Holy War_’ _Bunyan seems to have kept in mind his own experience_. _The fortifications of the city_, _the movements of the opposing forces_, _the changes in the municipal offices of Mansoul were reproductions of scenes and events that had but recently gone on under Bunyan’s eyes_. _He adapted them with extraordinary success to the presentation both of the doctrines of grace and of the temptations which attend the Christian life_. _The characters and the incidents are_, _in effect_, _the characters and incidents of every age_. _It is this which gives to the story of Mansoul its undying freshness_, _and suits it to the needs of men in all climes_. ‘_The Holy War_’ _has been translated into many languages_, _including some of those with the scantiest of literature_. _Indeed_, _as this edition is being prepared for the press_, _assistance is being rendered by the Religious Tract Society in the printing of_ ‘_The Holy War_’ _in Kongo_. _A. R. BUCKLAND_. TO THE READER. ’Tis strange to me, that they that love to tell Things done of old, yea, and that do excel Their equals in historiology, Speak not of Mansoul’s wars, but let them lie Dead, like old fables, or such worthless things, That to the reader no advantage brings: When men, let them make what they will their own, Till they know this, are to themselves unknown. Of stories, I well know, there’s divers sorts, Some foreign, some domestic; and reports Are thereof made as fancy leads the writers: (By books a man may guess at the inditers.) Some will again of that which never was, Nor will be, feign (and that without a cause) Such matter, raise such mountains, tell such things Of men, of laws, of countries, and of kings; And in their story seem to be so sage, And with such gravity clothe every page, That though their frontispiece says all is vain, Yet to their way disciples they obtain. But, readers, I have somewhat else to do, Than with vain stories thus to trouble you. What here I say, some men do know so well, They can with tears and joy the story tell. The town of Mansoul is well known to many, Nor are her troubles doubted of by any That are acquainted with those Histories That Mansoul and her wars anatomize. Then lend thine ear to what I do relate, Touching the town of Mansoul and her state: How she was lost, took captive, made a slave: And how against him set, that should her save; Yea, how by hostile ways she did oppose Her Lord, and with his enemy did close. For they are true: he that will them deny Must needs the best of records vilify. For my part, I myself was in the town, Both when ’twas set up, and when pulling down. I saw Diabolus in his possession, And Mansoul also under his oppression.