I see myself now at the end of my Journey, my toilsome days are ended. I am going now to see that Head that was crowned with Thorns, and that Face that was spit upon for me.
I have formerly lived by Hear-say and Faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose Company I delight myself.
I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of, and wherever I have seen the print of His Shoe in the Earth, there I have coveted to set my Foot too.
His name has been to me as a Civet-box, yea, sweeter than all Perfumes. His Voice to me has been most sweet, and his Countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the Light of the Sun. His Word I did use to gather for my Food and for Antidotes against my Faintings. He has held me, and I have kept me from mine iniquities, yea, my Steps hath He strengthened in His Way.
Now while he was thus in Discourse, his Countenance changed, his strong man bowed under him, and after he had said, _Take me, for I come unto Thee_, he ceased to be seen of them.
But glorious it was to see how the open Region was filled with Horses and Chariots, with Trumpeters and Pipers, with Singers and Players on Stringed Instruments, to welcome the Pilgrims as they went up, and followed one another in at the beautiful Gate of the City.
Then I saw in my Dream, that when they were got out of the Wilderness, they presently saw a Town before them, and the name of that Town is _Vanity_; and at the Town there is a Fair kept, called _Vanity Fair_: it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of _Vanity Fair_, because the Town where 'tis kept is _lighter than Vanity_; and also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is _Vanity_. As is the saying of the wise, _All that cometh is Vanity_.
This Fair is no new erected business, but a thing of ancient standing; I will shew you the original of it.
Almost five thousand years agone, there were Pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are; and _Beelzebub_, _Apollyon_, and _Legion_, with their Companions, perceiving by the path that the Pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this Town of _Vanity_, they contrived here to set up a Fair; a Fair wherein should be sold of _all sorts of Vanity_, and that it should last all the year long: therefore at this Fair are all such Merchandise sold, as Houses, Lands, Trades, Places, Honors, Preferments, Titles, Countries, Kingdoms, Lusts, Pleasures, and Delights of all sorts, as Whores, Bawds, Wives, Husbands, Children, Masters, Servants, Lives, Blood, Bodies, Souls, Silver, Gold, Pearls, Precious Stones, and what not....