The first imagined Nostradamus quatrain opens the book. Herewith the full four quatrains.
Lend thine eyes to the tales of a rumplesome wise man,
Prober of the infinitely large, scrutinizer of the infinitesimally small.
Who will wield not sword but chalk,
Yet unleash fireballs like the blast of a thousand dragons.
Lend thine ears to his disputations most sage,
To his fiddling with musical companions,
To his infectious, chortling laugh,
To his gentle voice betokening profound wisdom.
Lend thy cogitations to his feats of calculation,
To his power to grasp the heavens by the might of his mind,
To his resolute wrestling with puzzles most perplexing,
To serve the beneficience of mankind.
Lend thy heart, forsooth, to a man who will tickle the chins of children,
Befriend merchants mighty and toilers of soil,
Bemuse scholastics and shopkeepers alike,
And graciously receive callers aplenty from the far corners of the earth.