Since governments, sects and countries will undergo such sweeping changes, diametrically

opposed to what now obtains, that were I to relate events to come, those in power now -

monarchs, leaders of sects and religions - would find these so different from their own

imaginings that they would be led to condemn what later centuries will learn how to see and

understand. Bear in mind also Our Saviour's words: Do not give anything holy to the

dogs, nor throw pearls in front of the pigs lest they trample them with their feet and turn on you

and tear you apart. For this reason I withdrew my pen from the paper, because I wished to

amplify my statement touching the Vulgar Advent (1), by means of ambiguous and enigmatic

comments about future causes, even those closest to us and those I have perceived, so that some

human change which may come to pass shall not unduly scandalize delicate sensibilities. The

whole work is thus written in a nebulous rather than plainly prophetic form. So much so that,

You have hidden these things from the wise and the circumspect, that is from the mighty and the

rulers, and you have purified those things for the small and the poor, and through Almighty

God's will, revealed unto those prophets with the power to perceive what is distant and thereby to

foretell things to come. For nothing can be accomplished without this faculty, whose power and

goodness work so strongly in those to whom it is given that, while they contemplate within

themselves, these powers are subject to other influences arising from the force of good. This

warmth and strength of prophecy invests us with its influence as the sun's rays affect both

animate and inanimate entities.

Nostradamus