“Go then, my little Book, and show to all
That entertain, and bid thee welcome shall,
What thou dost keep close shut up in thy breast;
And wish what thou dost show them may be blest
To them for good, may make them choose to be
Pilgrims better, by far, than thee or me.
Tell them of Mercy; she is one
Who early hath her pilgrimage begun.
Yea, let young damsels learn of her to prize
The world which is to come, and so be wise;
For little tripping maids may follow God
Along the ways which saintly feet have trod.”
ADAPTED FROM JOHN BUNYAN1
1. ADAPTED FROM JOHN BUNYAN. John Bunyan’s famed religious allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, occupied a special place in the lives of the Alcott family. Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), called it his “dear, delightful book” and the dictionary by which he learned the English language. It was, he wrote, “one of the few [books] that gave me to myself. . . . [It] seems to chronicle my Identity.” Bronson accepted Bunyan’s belief that the physical world was essentially a divinely created symbol, to be observed for its spiritual, not its literal significance. He also absorbed deeply the book’s message of austere piety and self-denial, and he did his best to pass these tenets on to his children. Part One of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) tells the story of Christian, who, inspired by an apocalyptic vision, flees the sinful City of Destruction and embarks on a quest for the Celestial City. The second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1684) is more pertinent to Part First of Little Women, as it concerns the adventures of Christian’s wife and their four children as they strive to conquer sin and find salvation in the patriarch’s absence. Christian’s children are boys, not girls. Nevertheless, Part Second of the allegory plainly asserts, as Part First does not, that women and children can and should actively pursue the moral good life. Alcott’s prefatory lines are an adaptation of a portion of the poem with which Bunyan began Part Two of The Pilgrim’s Progress. The original lines read:
Go then, my little Book and shew to all
That entertain, and bid thee welcome shall,
What thou shalt keep close, shut up from the rest,
And wish what thou shalt shew them may be blest
To them for good, may make them chuse to be
Pilgrims, better by far, then [sic] thee or me.