"I never heard of any one who read it that was not pleased with it. It was translated into German as soon as it appeared, and was very favourably received. Goethe thought well of it. Dr. Jacob Grimm--perhaps the first authority on these matters in Europe--wrote me a letter commending it, and assuring me that even to _him_ it offered something new; and I was one Christmas most agreeably surprised by the receipt of a letter from Vienna, from the celebrated orientalist, Jos Von Hammer, informing me that it had been the companion of a journey he had lately made to his native province of Styria, and had afforded much pleasure and information to himself and to some ladies of high rank and cultivated minds in that country. The initials at the end of the preface, he said, led him to suppose it was a work of mine. So far for the Continent. In this country, when I mention the name of Robert Southey as that of one who has more than once expressed his decided approbation of this performance, I am sure I shall have said quite enough to satisfy any one that the work is not devoid of merit." I could now add many names of distinguished persons who have been pleased with this work and its pendent, the Tales and Popular Fictions. I shall only mention that of the late Mr. Douce, who, very shortly before his death, on the occasion of the publication of this last work, called on me to assure me that "it was many, many years indeed, since he had read a book which had yielded him so much delight." The contents of the work which gave such pleasure to this learned antiquary are as follows:-- I. Introduction--Similarity of Arts and Customs--Similarity of Names--Origin of the Work--Imitation--Casual Coincidence--Milton--Dante. II. The Thousand and One Nights--Bedoween Audience around a Story-teller--Cleomades and Claremond--Enchanted Horses--Peter of Provence and the fair Maguelone. III. The Pleasant Nights--The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Beautiful Green Bird--The Three Little Birds--Lactantius--Ulysses and Sindbad. IV. The Shâh-Nâmeh--Roostem and Soohrâb--Conloch and Cuchullin--Macpherson's Ossian--Irish Antiquities. V. The Pentamerone--Tale of the Serpent--Hindoo Legend. VI. Jack the Giant-killer--The Brave Tailoring--Thor's Journey to Utgard--Ameen of Isfahan and the Ghool--The Lion and the Goat--The Lion and the Ass. VII. Whittington and his Cat--Danish Legends--Italian Stories--Persian Legend. VIII. The Edda--Sigurd and Brynhilda--Völund--Helgi--Holger Danske--Ogier le Danois--Toko--William Tell. IX. Peruonto--Peter the Fool--Emelyan the Fool--Conclusion. Appendix.