OF MILETUS BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON, BART., M.P. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1866 The Right of Translation is reserved 280. j. 54. PREFACE. IME has spared no remains, in their original form, of those famous Tales of Miletus, which are generally considered to be the remote progenitors of the modern Novel. The strongest presumption in favour of their merit rests on the evidence of the popularity they enjoyed both among Greeks and Romans in times when the imaginative literature of either people was at its highest point of cultivation. As to the materials which they employed for interest or amusement, we are not without means of reasonable conjecture. Parthenius, a poet, probably of Nicæa (though his birthplace has been called in dispute), who enjoyed a considerable reputation in the Augustan Age, and had the honour to teach. Virgil Greek, has bequeathed to us a collection of short love-stories compiled from older and more elaborate legends. In making this collection he could scarcely fail to have |