Greetings and happiness to César Nostradamus my son

Your late arrival, César Nostredame, my son, has made me spend much time in constant nightly

reflection so that I could communicate with you by letter and leave you this reminder, after my

death, for the benefit of all men, of which the divine spirit has vouchsafed me to know by means

of astronomy.

And since it was the Almighty's will that you were not born here in this region [Provence] and I

do not want to talk of years to come but of the months during which you will struggle to grasp

and understand the work I shall be compelled to leave you after my death: assuming that it will

not be possible for me to leave you such [clearer] writing as may be destroyed through the

injustice of the age [1555]. The key to the hidden prediction which you will inherit will be

locked inside my heart.

--Nostradamus