I Wish I’d Said That.

Table of Contents.

The Ludicrous Is One of the Divine Ideas.
The Hypocrite of the Family.
Bible-Reading for Children.
Lost Illusions.
A Writer’s Motto.
Sydney Smith Paves a Street.
Anthony Trollope Sells a Novel.
The Hydrostatic Paradox of Controversy.
The Saving Grace.
Enlightenment and Democracy.
On Anxiety.
The Advantage of the Powers of the Dark.
Abigail Adams on Slavery.
Love Thy Neighbor.
Excelsior.
Thackeray on Critics.
The Best Traditions Make the Best Rebels.
Little Red Riding-Hood and the Wolf.
The Prussian Soldier and the Saxon Verger.
The Praise of the Multitude.
Artemus Ward on Shakespeare.
Diogenes the Cynic on Beggars and Philosophers.
The Danger of the Military.
The Grand Principle of Education.
Artemus Ward on the Ballot.
The Favorites of Honorius.
Augustine on Genesis and Science.
On Prefaces (and Other Things).
Perpetual Motion.
A Precise Geometrical Description.
Epes Winthrop Sargent on Writing Comedy.
Cardinal Mezzofanti’s Linguistic Spectacles.
Hegel’s German Style.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge on Abolition.
Pittsburgh.
Wiser than Our Fathers.
Big Words, Small Meaning.
Thoughts on African Colonization.
The Play of Children and the Play of Adults.
The Most Barbarous Cost of War.
The Worst Part About Making a Soldier.
Only One Thing Can Save Us.
Coventry Patmore on Biblical Literalism.
A Book May Be as Great a Thing as a Battle.
Be Understood First; Be Correct Second.
Ignorance of the Past.