“What!  Leave my friends and comforts for such a brain-sick fellow as you?  No, I will go back to my own home.”

Christian and Pliable walked on together, without looking whither they were going, and in the midst of the plain they fell into a very miry slough, which was called the Slough of Despond.  Here they wallowed for a time, and Christian, because of the burden that was on his back, began to sink in the mire.

“Is this the happiness you told me of?” said Pliable.  “If I get out again with my life, you shall make your journey alone.”

With a desperate effort he got out of the mire, and went back, leaving Christian alone in the Slough of Despond.  As Christian struggled under his burden towards the wicket gate, I saw in my dream that a man came to him, whose name was Help, and drew him out, and set him upon sound ground.  But before Christian could get to the wicket gate, Mr. Worldly Wiseman came and spoke to him.

“How now, good fellow!” said Mr. Worldly Wiseman.  “Where are you going with that heavy burden on your back?”

“To yonder wicket gate,” said Christian.  “For there, Evangelist told me, I shall be put into a way to be rid of my heavy burden.”

“Evangelist is a dangerous and troublesome fellow,” said Mr. Worldly Wiseman.  “Do not follow his counsel.  Hear me:  I am older than you.  I can tell you an easy way to get rid of your burden.  You see the village on yonder high hill?”

“Yes,” said Christian.  “I remember the village is called Morality.”

“It is,” said Mr. Worldly Wiseman.  “There you will find a very judicious gentleman whose name is Mr. Legality.  If he is not in, inquire for his son, Mr. Civility.  Both of them have great skill in helping men to get burdens off their shoulders.”

Christian resolved to follow Mr. Worldly Wiseman’s advice.  But, as he was painfully climbing up the high hill, Evangelist came up to him, and said, “Are you not the man that I found crying in the City of Destruction, and directed to the little wicket gate?  How is it that you have gone so far out of the way?”

Christian blushed for shame, and said that he had been led astray by Mr. Worldly Wiseman.

“Mr. Worldly Wiseman,” said Evangelist, “is a wicked man.  Mr. Legality is a cheat, and his son, Mr. Civility, is a hypocrite.  If you listen to them they will beguile you of your salvation, and turn you from the right way.”

Evangelist then set Christian in the true path which led to the wicket gate, over which was written, “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”  And Christian knocked, and a grave person, named Goodwill, opened the gate and let him in.  I saw in my dream that Christian asked him to help him off with the burden that was upon his back, and Goodwill pointed to a narrow way running from the wicket gate, and said, “Do you see that narrow way?  That is the way you must go.  Keep to it, and do not turn down any of the wide and crooked roads, and you will soon come to the place of deliverance, where your burden will fall from your back of itself.”