not the world, nor the things that are in the world,” he was amazed, and could not swallow that hard saying.  There was one, green-eyed and envious, who turned back when he read:  “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  There was a gossip and a slanderer who became dazed on reading:  “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”  When he read, “Thou shalt not kill,” “This is not the place for me” quoth the physician.  In short, everybody saw something which troubled him, and so they all returned together to consider the matter.  I saw no one yet come back who had conned his lesson; they had so many bags and scripts tightly bound to them, that they could never have got through such a narrow needle’s eye, even if they had tried to.  After that a drove from the Street of Pleasure walked up to the gate.  “Where, pray, does this road lead to?” asked one of the watchmen.  “This,” answered he, “is the way that leads to eternal joy and happiness.”  Whereupon all strove to enter, but failed, for some were too stout to pass through such a strait opening; others too weak to struggle, being enfeebled through debauchery.  “Oh, ye must not attempt to take your baubles with you,” said the watchman, observing them; “ye must leave behind your pots and dishes, your minions, and all other things, and then hasten on.”  “How shall we live?” asked the fiddler, who would have been through long since but that he feared to smash his fiddle.  “Ye must trust the king’s promise to send after you as many of these things as will do you good,” said the watchman.  This made them all prick their ears, “Oh, oh!” said one, “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush,” and at that they with one accord turned back.

“Let us enter then,” said the Angel, and drew me in; and there in the porch I first of all perceived a large baptismal font, and hard by, a well of salt water.  “What is this doing in the middle of the road?” I asked.  “Because everybody must wash therein before obtaining citizenship in the Court of Emmanuel; it is called the well of repentance.”  Overhead I could see inscribed “This is the gate of the Lord.”  The gateway, and street also, widened and became less steep as we went on, and after proceeding a short distance I heard a voice behind me slowly saying, “That is the way, walk ye in it.”  The street trended upwards, but was very clean and straight, and though the houses there were not so lofty as those in the City of Destruction, they were fairer to behold; if there was less wealth, there was also less dissension and care; if the choice dishes were fewer, pain was more rare; if there was less turmoil, there was less grief and more undoubtedly of true joy.  I wondered at the silence and sweet tranquility there, when thinking of what was going on below.  Instead of the cursing and swearing, the scoffing, debauchery and drunkenness, instead of the pride and vanity, the torpitude of one quarter and the violence of another, yea, for all the bustle and the pomp,