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FROM THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK
WHEN at first I took my pen in hand
Thus for to write, I did not understand
That I at all should make a little book
In such a mode. Nay, I had undertook
To make another; which, when almost done,
Before I was aware, I this begun.
And thus it was: I, writing of the way
And race of saints in this our gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory
About their journey, and the way to glory,
In more than twenty things which I set down.
This done, I twenty more had in my crown;
And they again began to multiply
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
... But yet I did not think
To show to all the world my pen and ink
In such a mode. I only thought to make
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