In Scotland and
in some of the colonies, the Pilgrim was even more popular than in his
native country. Bunyan has told us, with very pardonable vanity, that in
New England his Dream was the daily subject of the conversation of
thousands, and was thought worthy to appear in the most superb binding.
He had numerous admirers in Holland and among the Huguenots of France.
With the pleasure, however, he experienced some of the pains of
eminence. Knavish booksellers put forth volumes of trash under his name,
and envious scribblers maintained it to be impossible that the poor
ignorant tinker should really be the author of the book which was called
his.
He took the best way to confound both those who counterfeited him and
those slandered him. He continued to work the gold-field which he had
discovered, and to draw from it new treasures; not, indeed, with quite
such ease and in quite such abundance as when the precious soil was
still virgin, but yet with success which left all competition far
behind. In 1684 appeared the second part of the "Pilgrim's Progress." It
was soon followed by the "Holy War," which, if the "Pilgrim's Progress"
did not exist, would be the best allegory that ever was written.
Bunyan's place in society was now very different from what it had been.
There had been a time when many Dissenting ministers, who could talk
Latin and read Greek, had affected to treat him with scorn. But his fame
and influence now far exceeded theirs.
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