Excerpt from The Works of Apuleius: Comprising the Metamorphoses, or Golden Ass, the God of Socrates, the Florida, and His Defence, or a Discourse on Magic I had occasion to visit Thessaly on business; for it was there that our origin on the maternal side was derived, in the first place, from the celebrated Plutarch}? And afterwards from his grandson, Sextus, the philosopher, a thing which reflects so much honour upon us. I had travelled over lofty mountains, slippery valleys, dewy turf, and thick-clodded plains, being mounted on a milk-white horse of that country; and as he was now much fatigued, I jumped upon my feet, in order that I too might shake off the numbness of my limbs by walking; then carefully wiped the sweat from my horse with a handful of leaves, 1 stroked his ears, threw the reins over his head, and walked him along at a gentle pace, until the Usual functions of nature had relieved his weariness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.