according to time and place. Besides, I have to deal with one of those
by no means rare cases, where poetry can approach nearer the truth than
prudent, watchful prose. Many of my honored critics have censured these
scenes; others, among whom are some whose opinion I specially value, have
lavished the kindest praise upon them. Among these gentlemen I will
mention A. Stahr, C. V. Holtei, M. Hartmann, E. Hoefer, W. Wolfsohn, C.
Leemans, Professor Veth of Amsterdam, etc. Yet I will not conceal the
fact that some, whose opinion has great weight, have asked: "Did the
ancients know anything of love, in our sense of the word? Is not
romantic love, as we know it, a result of Christianity?" The following
sentence, which stands at the head of the preface to my first edition,
will prove that I had not ignored this question when I began my task.

"It has often been remarked that in Cicero's letters and those of
Pliny the younger there are unmistakeable indications of sympathy
with the more sentimental feeling of modern days. I find in them
tones of deep tenderness only, such as have arisen and will arise
from sad and aching hearts in every land and every age."

A. v. HUMBOLDT. Cosmos II. P. 19.

This opinion of our great scholar is one with which I cheerfully coincide
and would refer my readers to the fact that love-stories were written
before the Christian era: the Amor and Psyche of Apuleius for instance.
Indeed love in all its forms was familiar to the ancients. Where can we
find a more beautiful expression of ardent passion than glows in Sappho's
songs? or of patient faithful constancy than in Homer's Penelope? Could
there be a more beautiful picture of the union of two loving hearts, even
beyond the grave, than Xenophon has preserved for us in his account of
Panthea and Abradatas? or the story of Sabinus the Gaul and his wife,