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
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
Last modified 3 February 2008