The Excuse as Introduction; or Why I am Forced to Write

• Charles Darwin's Autobiography
• Henry David Thoreau's Walden
• Henry David Thoreau's "A Plea for Captain John Brown"
• John Ruskin's Autobiography, Praetrita
• John Ruskin's "Traffic"

The Narrative Introduction

• Sebastian Gallese's "Owning Your Very Own Rolix"
• Sarah Groothuis's "Spaces for Sanctuary"

The Historical Introduction

• The Opening Paragraphs of Carlyle's "Hudson's Statue"
• The prophetico-historical opening paragraphs of The Stones of Venice

The Corrective Introduction

• Justin McCarthy's Essay on Charles Reade (1872
• Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy
• The Opening Paragraphs of W. E. Henley's Essay on Disraeli

The Paradoxical Introduction

• Section on Boswell in T. B. Macaulay's Review of Croker's edition of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson"
• G. P. Landow's The Aesthetic and Critical Theories of John Ruskin
• Thomas Carlyle's "The Hero as Man of Letters"

Begnning with a General Rule or Wisdom Statement

• Johnson on Lying
• Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience"
• The Opening Paragraphs T. B. Macaulay's Review of Croker's edition of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson"
• The Opening Paragraphs of T. B. Macaulay's Review of Ranke's Ecclesiastical and political History of the Popes

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Last modified 3 February 2008