Writing Sampler was an unpublished work by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
[1] Writing Sampler was intended to emphasize the ironic and satirical elements of the Prefaces.
It is also a historical social commentary of life in Copenhagen in the 1840s, and it references people and events of note at the time.
In the old days, one initially wrote a work by which one sought to gain prominence, but now the task is so manifold that competence in everything is required.
... a person does best these days by producing a sampler or a style book to qualify himself and to draw the public's attention to himself before he chooses this way of making a living and settles down as an author...