I hate prologues because they're kind of gimmicks to suck you in.
Books, too, begin like the week – with a day of rest in memory of their creation. The preface is their Sunday.
Where to start is the problem, because nothing begins when it begins and nothing's over when it's over, and everything needs a preface: a preface, a postscript, a chart of simultaneous events.
I therefore set to work, and after two and a half years of not inconsiderable labour I now have the privilege and the satisfaction of accompanying the early volumes of the series with this preface.
For, usually and fitly, the presence of an introduction is held to imply that there is something of consequence and importance to be introduced.
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
An opening statement is like a guide or a road map. It's a very delicate thing.
It would appear, from the best examples, that the proper way of beginning a preface to one's work is with a humble apology for having written at all.
Everything before Jesus is preface. Everything after Jesus is appendix. Jesus is the story.
