The Hero of Elstow ; or, the Story of the
Pilgrimage of John Bunyan. By James Copner, M.A. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—Mr. Copuer is Vicar of the parish of Elstow, and his little book, which in any ease would be welcome, derives a certain special significance from the fact. The Church of England permitted, and even encouraged, though it dii not actually carry into execution, the intolerance which distinguished the period intervening between the Restoration and the Revolution of 1688. Bunyan was one of the most blameless, as ho was one of the most dis- tinguished of its victims, and there is certainly propriety in the authorship of this record of his work and sufferings. Mr. Copner hen, of course, the local knowledge required. Future pilgrims to Elstow will note the facts that the house in which Bunyan was born has been pulled down, but that another, in which he is believed to have lived for many years, still stands. The biography is written in a very liberal and sen- sible tone. We would commend especially chapter x. as worthy of perusal, though it is somewhat pedantically called "psychological and complemental." "What theory can be advanced to account adequately for the extraordinary experiences which our hero wont through ? " is the question which the author asks, and to which he gives an answer which most reasonable persons will accept. It is a happy idea of the author that Elstow parish church might be restored "as a monument to Bunyan." Here is an admirable suggestion of the common ground of kindly and charitable feeling on which Churchmen and Dissenters might meet. Something might be done, at the same time, for the old building which is now used as a meeting-house for "the respectable body of Dissenters who trace their spiritual pedigree to Bunyan." Even the body in question is not probably at the present day so bigoted against all ornamentation as to decline the offer.
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