I Motives to the present work—Reception of the Author’s firstpublication—Discipline of his taste at school—Effect ofcontemporary writers on youthful minds—Bowles’s Sonnets—Comparison between the poets before and since Pope
II Supposed irritability of genius brought to the test of facts—Causes and occasions of the charge—Its injustice
III The Author’s obligations to Critics, and the probable occasion—Principles of modern criticism—Mr. Southey’s works and character
IV The Lyrical Ballads with the Preface—Mr. Wordsworth’s earlier poems—On Fancy and Imagination—The investigation of the distinction important to the Fine Arts
V On the law of Association—Its history traced from Aristotle to Hartley
VI That Hartley’s system, as far as it differs from that ofAristotle, is neither tenable in theory, nor foundedin facts
VII Of the necessary consequences of the Hartleian Theory—Of the original mistake or equivocation which procured its admission—Memoria technica
VIII The system of Dualism introduced by Des Cartes—Refinedfirst by Spinoza and afterwards by Leibnitz into thedoctrine of Harmonia praestabilita—Hylozoism—Materialism—None of these systems, or any possible theory ofAssociation, supplies or supersedes a theory ofPerception, or explains the formation of the Associable
XI Is Philosophy possible as a science, and what are itsconditions?—Giordano Bruno—Literary Aristocracy, or theexistence of a tacit compact among the learned as aprivileged order—The Author’s obligations to the Mystics-To Immanuel Kant—The difference between the letter andThe spirit of Kant’s writings, and a vindication ofPrudence in the teaching of Philosophy—Fichte’s attemptto complete the Critical system-Its partial success andultimate failure—Obligations to Schelling; and amongEnglish writers to Saumarez
X A Chapter of digression and anecdotes, as an interlude preceding that on the nature and genesis of the Imagination or Plastic Power—On Pedantry and pedantic expressions— Advice to young authors respecting publication—Various anecdotes of the Author’s literary life, and the progress of his opinions in Religion and Politics
XI An affectionate exhortation to those who in early life feel themselves disposed to become authors
XII A Chapter of requests and premonitions concerning the perusal or omission of the chapter that follows
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