The opening of the _Holy War_, simply as a piece of English, is worthy to stand beside the best page of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ itself, and what more can I say than that?
Now, the situation of a city is a matter of the very first importance.

Indeed, the insight and the foresight of the great statesmen and the great soldiers of past ages are seen in nothing more than in the sites they chose for their citadels and for their defenced cities.

Well, then, as to the situation of Mansoul, 'it lieth,' says our military author, 'just between the two worlds.' That is to say: very much as Germany in our day lies between France and Russia, and very much as Palestine in her day lay between Egypt and Assyria, so does Mansoul lie between two immense empires also.

And, surely, I do not need to explain to any man here who has a man's soul in his bosom that the two armed empires that besiege his soul are Heaven above and Hell beneath, and that both Heaven and Hell would give their best blood and their best treasure to subdue and to possess his soul.

We do not value our souls at all as Heaven and Hell value them.