And so it is in the _Holy War_.

John Bunyan is in the _Pilgrim's Progress_, but there are more men and other men than its author in that rich and populous book, and other experiences and other attainments than his.

But in the _Holy War_ we have Bunyan himself as fully and as exclusively as we have Dante in the _Divine Comedy_.

In the first edition of the _Holy War_ there is a frontispiece conceived and executed after the anatomical and symbolical manner which was so common in that day, and which is to be seen at its perfection in the English edition of Jacob Behmen.

The frontispiece is a full-length likeness of the author of the _Holy War_, with his whole soul laid open and his hidden heart 'anatomised.' Why, asked Wordsworth, and Matthew Arnold in our day has echoed the question--why does Homer still so live and rule without a rival in the world of letters?
And they answer that it is because he always sang with his eye so fixed upon its object.
'Homer, to thee I turn.' And so it was with Dante.