ABSTRACT
I wish that you were with me now in my study, dear Reader, as I search for the words with which to introduce this volume. It would be so much easier if we could talk, because, in talking, I could answer any questions you wished to ask and provide an introduction designed specifically for you. One trouble with the printed word is that it commits you irrevocably to a particular sequence of words, when so many different texts are always possible and so many are always needed. The chapters which follow have many potential meanings and neither of us can know, at this moment of writing, which one will best meet your requirements, situated as you are at some as yet unrealized point in space and time. If we were talking together, I could elicit words from you around which I could weave a textual gloss suited to your specific needs; a gloss which would, as is imperative for all introductions, not only summarize what is to come but also assure and reassure you of its worth.
