{"id": "card_n_fdfab2502b42", "kind": "note", "title": "Pilgrim's Progress §7: Come, let my carper to his life now look, And find there darker lines than in my book H...", "body": "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.", "source": {"label": "John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress (1678)", "url": "/canon.html?ref=pilgrim_007", "ref": "§7", "authority_tier": "external_aligned"}, "shelf": "classics", "box": "pilgrims_progress", "bands": ["pilgrim", "bunyan", "allegory"], "connections": [{"to_card_id": "card_n_ff61728528d5", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_fd72797ba3e9", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-05-19T13:07:21.233454+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-19T19:57:55.837341+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 4, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "6290c32e44f7f1da3b2f4a3966c66a182ccb0ff2363d866c8c287164ff35a726", "witnesses": [{"class": "manuscript_tradition", "label": "First edition Nathaniel Ponder, London 1678 — original imprint", "ref": "Ponder-1678"}, {"class": "critical_edition", "label": "Oxford World's Classics — Roger Sharrock, 1960/1984", "ref": "Sharrock-OWC"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Project Gutenberg — Pilgrim's Progress", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/131", "ref": "PG-131"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Internet Archive — multiple editions", "url": "https://archive.org/search?query=pilgrim%27s+progress+bunyan", "ref": "IA-Bunyan"}, {"class": "non_government_archive", "label": "Christian Classics Ethereal Library", "url": "https://www.ccel.org/ccel/bunyan/pilgrim.html", "ref": "CCEL-Bunyan"}, {"class": "citation_tradition", "label": "Cited extensively by Spurgeon, Edwards, modern Reformed writers", "ref": "Spurgeon-Edwards-cites"}], "witness_status": "passed", "witness_status_reason": "6 witnesses across 5 independence classes: ['citation_tradition', 'critical_edition', 'manuscript_tradition', 'non_government_archive', 'republication']", "surface": "secular"}