So they went
on, and Ignorance followed. They went then till they came at a place
where they saw a way put itself into their way, and seemed withal to lie as
strait as the way which they should go; and here they knew not which of the two
to take, for both seemed strait before them: therefore here they stood still to
consider. And as they were thinking about the way, behold a man black of flesh,
but covered with a very light robe, come to them, and asked them why they stood
there. They answered, they were going to the Celestial City, but knew not which
of these ways to take. “Follow me,” said the man, “it is thither that I am
going.” So they followed him in the way that but now came into the road, which
by degrees turned, and turned them so far from the city that they desired to go
to, that in a little time their faces were turned away from it; yet they follow
him. But by and by, before they were aware, he led them both within the compass
of a net, in which they were both so entangled that they knew not what to do;
and with that the white robe fell off the black man’s back. Then they saw where
they were. Wherefore there they lay crying some time, for they could not get
themselves out.
Christian: Then said Christian to his fellow, Now do I see
myself in an error. Did not the shepherds bid us beware of the Flatterer? As is
the saying of the wise man, so we have found it this day: “A man that
flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet.”
Hopeful: They also gave us a note of directions about the
way, for our more sure finding thereof; but therein we have also forgotten to
read, and have not kept ourselves from the paths of the destroyer. Here David
was wiser than we; for saith he, “Concerning the works of men, by the word of
thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the Destroyer.” Thus they
lay bewailing themselves in the net.
