The Works of Apuleius (Golden Ass, God of Socrates, Florida, On the Doctrines of Plato)

...of the extent and variety of his literary productions; nor was any mention made of it upon the occasion of his trial for magic, as would certainly have been done had his prosecutors been aware of the existence of such a book. This celebrated romance purports to be the autobiography of a certain Lucius of Madaura, whose curiosity with respect to magic is rewarded by his transformation into the form of a jackass, in which he undergoes many curious and ludicrous adventures, until he is at last restored to human shape by the interposition of the goddess Isis, to whose service he devotes himself. Had this amusing story appeared before the trial at Sabrata, it might have been used with formidable effect against its author, whose contemporaries, anticipating the opinions of a later age, might have identified Lucius with Apuleius and believed the latter to be a great magician.

Lactantius informs us that the early pagan controversialists used to rank Apuleius with Apollonius of Tyana as a thaumaturgusA miracle-worker., and to cite various miracles performed by him as equal or superior to those of Christ. A generation later, St. Augustine permitted himself to doubt whether the account given by Lucius, or Apuleius, of his change into an ass was not a true relation:

"Aut indicavit," says he, "aut finxit." original: "Aut indicavit, aut finxit." (He either pointed it out, or he invented it.)

The Golden Ass, in which many writers, especially Bishop Warburton, have been at pains to discover a profound theological purpose, appears to have been written with a view to little else than the amusement of a profane public. It is enriched with numerous episodes, of which the best known, and by far the most beautiful, is the story of Cupid and Psyche. Another forms the second story of the seventh day of the Decameron. An adventure that befell Lucius probably suggested to Cervantes the dreadful combat that took place at an inn between Don Quixote and the wine-skins; and there is a striking resemblance between the occurrences seen by Lucius at the habitation of robbers and some of the early incidents in Gil Blas. Apuleius, who is now comparatively neglected, was familiarly known to all readers of the classics during the three centuries preceding our own; but it is only...