“The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan (post 1): Christian hears the blasphemous voice of either a satanic spirit or a blasphemous alternate personality

“One thing I would not let slip, I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded, that he did not know his own voice: and thus I perceived it: Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning Pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stept up softly behind him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. This put Christian more to it than any thing that he met with before, even to think that he should now blaspheme him that he loved so much before; yet, could he have helped it, he would not have done it: but he had not the discretion neither to stop his ears, nor to know from whence those blasphemies came” (1, p. 65).

1. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim’s Progress [1678/1684]. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1966/2008.