There were some variations, but that was the structure. Other writers have used it. The reason genuine essayists never use it is not just its built-in applause and self- congratulation. It insults the reader. This is what you thought, poor fool, along with that herd of like-minded fools to which you belonged until this minute, when you began to read this piece. No editor with any feeling for civil discourse will publish an argument that rests upon this structure. Once, perhaps. Mistakes will happen. Certainly not with any regularity.
