That strong outburst from this so forfoughten man for a moment quite overawed Worldly-Wiseman.  He could not reply to an earnestness like this.  He did not understand it, and could not account for it.  The only thing he ever was in such earnestness as that about was his success in business and his title that he and his wife were scheming for.  But still, though silenced by this unaccountable outburst of our pilgrim, Worldly-Wiseman’s enmity against the upward way, and especially against all the men and all the books that made pilgrims take to that way, was not silenced.  ‘How camest thou by thy burden at first?’ By reading this Book in my hand.’  Worldly-Wiseman did not fall foul of the Book indeed, but he fell all the more foul of those who meddled with matters they had not a head for.  ’Leave these high and deep things for the ministers who are paid to understand and explain them, and attend to matters more within thy scope.’  And then he went on to tell of a far better way to get rid of the burden that meddlesome men brought on themselves by reading that book too much—­a far better and swifter way than attempting the wicket-gate.  ’Thou wilt never be settled in thy mind till thou art rid of that burden, nor canst thou enjoy the blessings of wife and child as long as that burden lies so heavy upon thee.’  That was so true that it made the pilgrim look up.  A gentleman who can speak in that true style must know more than he says about such burdens as this of mine; and, after all, he may be able, who knows, to give me some good advice in my great straits.  ’Pray, sir, open this secret to me, for I sorely stand in need of good counsel.’  Let him here who has no such burden as this poor pilgrim had cast the first stone at Christian; I cannot.  If one who looked like a gentleman came to me to-night and told me how I would on the spot get to a peace of conscience never to be lost again, and how I would get a heart to-night that would never any more plague and pollute me, I would be mightily tempted to forget what all my former teachers had told me and try this new Gospel.  And especially if the gentleman said that the remedy was just at hand.  ‘Pray, sir,’ said the breathless and spiritless man, ‘wilt thou, then, open this secret to me?’

The wit and the humour and the satire of the rest of the scene must be fully enjoyed over the great book itself.  The village named Morality, hard by the hill; that judicious man Legality, who dwells in the first house you come at after you have turned the hill; Civility, the pretty young man that Legality hath to his son; the hospitality of the village; the low rents and the cheap provisions, and all the charities and amenities of the place,—­all together make up such a picture as you cannot get anywhere out of John Bunyan.  And then the pilgrim’s stark folly in entering into Worldly-Wiseman’s secret; his horror as the hill began to thunder and lighten and threaten to fall upon him; the sudden descent of Evangelist; and then the plain-spoken words that passed between the preacher and the pilgrim,—­don’t say again that the poorest of the Puritans were without letters, or that they had not their own esoteric writings full of fun and frolic; don’t say that again till you are a pilgrim yourself, and have our John Bunyan for one of your classics by heart.