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ROGER OF WENDOVER'S FLOWERS OF HISTORY. PREFACE. Here begins the Preface to the Book intituled Flowers of History. W E have thought good briefly to note the chief events of past times, and to give the lineage of our Saviour from the beginning, with the successions of certain kingdoms of the world and of their rulers, for the instruction of posterity, and to aid the diligence of the studious hearer. But, first, we will address a word to certain dull cavillers, who ask what need there is of recording men's lives and deaths, or the various chances which befall them or of committing to writing the different prodigies of heaven, earth, and the elements? Now, we would have such persons know that the lives of cood men in times past are set forth for theJmitaiion of succeeding times ; and that the examples of evil men, when such occur, are not to be followed, but to be shunned. Mojreover, the prodigies and portentous occurrences of past days, whether in the way of peatilf.nce, or in other chastisements of God's wrath, are not without admonition, to the faithful. Therefore is the memory of them committed to writing, that if ever the like shall again occur, men may presently betake themselves to repentance, and by this remedy appease the divine vengeance. For this cause, therefore, among many others, Moses, the law-giver, sets forth in the sacred history, the innocence of Abel, the envy of Cain, the sincerity of Job, the dissimulation of Esau, the malice of eleven of the sons of Israel, the goodness of Joseph the twelfth, the punishment of the five cities in their destruction by fire and brimstone, to the end that we may imitate the good, and carefully turn from the ways of the wicked ; and this not only does Moses, but also all the writers of the sacred page, who, by commending virtue, and holding up vice to VOL. ι. Β

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