[i]

IOLÄUS

[ii]

[iii]

[iv]

The degree to which Friendship, in the earlyhistory of the world, has been recognised asan institution, and the dignity ascribed to it, arethings hardly realized to-day. Yet a very slight examinationof the subject shows the important partit has played. In making the following collectionI have been much struck by the remarkable mannerin which the customs of various races and timesillustrate each other, and the way in which theypoint to a solid and enduring body of human sentimenton the subject. By arranging the extracts ina kind of rough chronological and evolutionaryorder from those dealing with primitive races onwards,the continuity of these customs comes out allthe more clearly, as well as their slow modificationin course of time. But it must be confessed that thepresent collection is only incomplete, and a smallcontribution, at best, towards a large subject.

In the matter of quotation and translation, mybest thanks are due to various authors and holdersof literary copyrights for their assistance and authority;and especially to the Master and Fellows ofBalliol College for permission to quote from thelate Professor Jowett’s translation of Plato’s dialogues;[vi]to Messrs. George Bell & Sons for leaveto make use of the Bohn series; to Messrs. A. & C.Black for leave of quotation from the late J. AddingtonSymonds’ Studies of the Greek Poets; andto Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., for sanctionof extracts from the Rev. W. H. Hutchings’ translationof the Confessions of St. Augustine. In caseswhere no reference is given the translations are bythe Editor.

E. C.

March, 1902.