Pilgrim's Progress §7: Come, let my carper to his life now look, And find there darker lines than in my book H...

Come, let my carper to his life now look, And find there darker lines than in my book He findeth any; yea, and let him know, That in his best things there are worse lines too. May we but stand before impartial men, To his poor one I dare adventure ten, That they will take my meaning in these lines Far better than his lies in silver shrines. Come, truth, although in swaddling clouts, I find, Informs the judgement, rectifies the mind; Pleases the understanding, makes the will Submit; the memory too it doth fill With what doth our imaginations please; Likewise it tends our troubles to appease. Sound words, I know, Timothy is to use, And old wives' fables he is to refuse; But yet grave Paul him nowhere did forbid The use of parables; in which lay hid That gold, those pearls, and precious stones that were Worth digging for, and that with greatest care. Let me add one word more. O man of God, Art thou offended? Dost thou wish I had Put forth my matter in another dress? Or, that I had in things been more express? Three things let me propound; then I submit To those that are my betters, as is fit.