PREFACE TO THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD SIR WALTER RALEIGH

PROOEMIUM, epistle dedicatory, preface, and plan of the
Instauratio Magna, etc.  Francis Bacon
translation edited by J. SPEDDING

PREFACE TO THE NOVUM ORGANUM FRANCIS BACON

Preface to the first folio edition of Shakespeare’s
plays Heminge and Condell

Preface to the Philosophiae Naturalis principia
MATHEMATICA sir Isaac Newton
translated by Andrew Motte

  Preface to fables, ancient and modern
                                        John Dryden

Preface to Joseph Andrews             Henry Fielding
preface to the English dictionary     Samuel Johnson
preface to Shakespeare                Samuel Johnson
introduction to the PROPYLAeEN         J.W.  Von Goethe

Prefaces to various volumes of poems
William Wordsworth
appendix to lyrical ballads           William Wordsworth
essay supplementary to preface        William Wordsworth

  Preface to Cromwell Victor Hugo
  preface to leaves of grass Walt Whitman
  introduction to the history of English literature
                                        H.A.  Taine

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

No part of a book is so intimate as the Preface.  Here, after the long labor of the work is over, the author descends from his platform, and speaks with his reader as man to man, disclosing his hopes and fears, seeking sympathy for his difficulties, offering defence or defiance, according to his temper, against the criticisms which he anticipates.  It thus happens that a personality which has been veiled by a formal method throughout many chapters, is suddenly seen face to face in the Preface; and this alone, if there were no other reason, would justify a volume of Prefaces.