n the Introduction, I discuss some of the essays’ main themes and indicate how the essays fit together. I also occasionally criticize what I say in one or another essay; and sometimes I discuss literature that the essays discuss only very brieflyor not at all. However, I have not done either of these things systematically or indetail. Nor does the Introduction defend my views in detail. It provides anoverview; details are reserved for the essays that follow.The chapters that follow record various debts. But I should also like to record afew particular acknowledgments here: to Peter Momtchiloff and Henry Clarke,both of Oxford University Press, for help and encouragement at various stages; toPeter Osorio for compiling the list of references and the index locorum; and, asalways, I owe more to Terry Irwin than I can say.