' And I have no doubt that we have
here the three things that above everything else bereft Bunyan of so many
of his spiritual children personified and then laid down by the heels in
Simple, Sloth, and Presumption.
SIMPLE
Let us shake up Simple first and ask him what it was that laid him so
soon and in such a plight and in such company in this bottom. It was not
that which from his name we might at first think it was. It was not the
weakness of his intellects, nor his youth, nor his inexperience. There
is danger enough, no doubt, in all these things if they are not carefully
attended to, but none of all these things in themselves, nor all of them
taken together, will lay any pilgrim by the heels. There must be more
than mere and pure simplicity. No blame attaches to a simple mind, much
less to an artless and an open heart. We do not blame such a man even
when we pity him. We take him, if he will let us, under our care, or we
put him under better care, but we do not anticipate any immediate ill to
him so long as he remains simple in mind, untainted in heart, and willing
to learn.
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